
Class 



R 



h_L2JLl 



jRnnlc . C 5 ^ -^ 



i*}J"_. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSER 



PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 
AND CHRISTIANITY 



Seen and Unseen. 

By E. KATHARINE BATES 
Author of "Do the Dead Depart" ^c. 

A plain, straightforward narrative of personal psychic experiences 
by a competent and dispassionate observer. Simple, lucid, and 
obviously truthful. 

300 pages, cloth, gilt top, $1.50 net. 

Do the Dead Depart? 

By E. KATHARINE BATES 

" A simple book for the general public, " giving a clear and most in- 
teresting account of the author's personal -psychic experience in her 
Investigations "beyond the veil." 

350 pages, cloth, $1.50 net. 

Psychical Science and Christianity. 
By E. KATHARINE BATES 

This book is not written from the point of view of an expert, but 
primarily for the large class of intelligent readers who are giving 
anxious thought to the imminent problems of readjustment and re- 
construction. It can offend no one, and will help many. 

330 pages, cloth, $1.50 net. 

Thought Transference. 

By PROF. NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS 

Author 9/ "Crystal Gazing.** 

A clear and succinct summary of the evidence on both sides of the 
subject, showing what a reasonable man, without bias, may con- 
sider as fairly proved. 

Cloth, Illustrated, $1.25 net 

Crystal Gazing. 

By PROF. NORTHCOTE W. THOMAS 
With an introduction by ANDREW LANG 

A history of the origin and practice of this fascinating branch of 
occult science, with a fiill account of ancient and modern 
methods. 

Cloth, f 1.25 net, 

DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

214-220 East 23D Street, New York. 



Psychical Science 
And Christianity 

A Problem of the XXth Century 



By 

E. KATHARINE BATES 

Author of "Seen and XJnseen^^ "Do the Dead 
Depart,'' etc. 






NEW YORK 

DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

214-220 EAST 23d STREET 






Copyright, 1909, 
By DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY 



1/ 



2489a9."* 



DEDICATION 

To those dear relations and friends 

in the '* Unseen " 
{G. G., C. E. B., G. E, and R, H.\ 

whose loving sympathy 

has encouraged me to write this book, 

I dedicate it 

with grateful affection 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



CHAP. 



PARTI 



I, Theology — Ancient and Modern 

II. Some Clerical Difficulties 

III. A New Cycle . 

IV, Our New Continent . 
V. Science and Religion 

VI. A Summary 



PACI 

vii 



I 

i6 

34 
47 
62 



PART II 

VII. Spiritualism — Its Use and Abuse 

VIII. Occult — And Otherwise 

IX. Automatic Writing — Its Use and Abuse 

X. On Some Misconceptions 

XI. The Bridge of Ether 

XII. In Conclusion . • • . 



96 
114 
129 
164 
182 
200 



" Build thee more stately mansions, oh, my Soul ! 
As the swift seasons roll ; 
Leave thy low- vaulted Past, 
Let each new Temple, loftier than the last, 
Shut thee from Heaven, with a dome more vast ; 
Till thou at length art free ; 

Leaving thine outgrown shell, by Life's unresting Sea." 
From « The Chambered Nautilus." 
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



" Yet if it be that something not thy own, 

• • • • • • 

Is even to thy unworthiness made known, 

Thou mayst not hide, what yet thou shouldst not dare 

To utter lightly, lest on lips of thine. 

The real seem false — the beauty undivine. 

So, weighing duty in the scale of prayer, 

Give what seems given thee — it may prove a seed 

Of Goodness, dropped in fallow grounds of need." 

J. G. Whittier. 



INTRODUCTION 

Desperate diseases need desperate reme- 
dies. The time has surely come when 
silence on certain subjects is no longer dis- 
creet and advisable, but absolutely criminal. 

" If meat make my brother to offend, I 
will eat no more flesh while the world 
standeth," said St. Paul in one of his mo- 
ments of magnificent self-surrender. 

Perhaps we have quoted this text some- 
times too liberally ; as an excuse for our 
silence, as well as a reason for our discretion. 
There is a time for all things : a time for 
silence and a time for speech ; a time for 
discreet reserve, and a time for speaking out 
— and speaking boldly — even at the risk of 
offending some of our " brothers " and 
sisters. 

A man once passed an artist who was 
working in the midst of splendid mountain 
scenery. He saw him put down his 
brushes, get up, and step slowly back- 
wards, the better to judge of the eflPect of 
his work. Absorbed in this, the artist had 
forgotten the precipice behind him, and was 
quietly stepping further and further back, 
to get just the right light upon his picture. 

vii 



x\ 



viii INTRODUCTION 

The stranger, grasping the situation and 
realizing that a word of warning would 
only precipitate the calamity, seized one of 
the artist's paint-brushes and, with great 
presence of mind, daubed the paint over the 
beautiful picture which had cost him so 
many hours of patient work. The latter 
naturally sprang forward to save his be- 
loved picture and to punish the ** wicked 
outrage," and was himself saved from a 
hideous death. 

The Churches have built up a beautiful 
picture, founded on tradition, both true and 
false, as to our Lord's life and mission ; true 
and false because the groupings in the pic- 
ture do not always harmonize, but are often 
in direct contradiction, the one to the other. 

The noble lines of the most divine Life 
ever lived are all there — easily filled in by 
the devout and reverent soul. Our Lord 
said quite enough of Himself and of His 
mission to give the true idea of both. That 
accretions and additions should be found, 
due to the necessary limitations or the in- 
herited prejudices of His recorders, must be 
true of any book, however sacred, that has 
not dropped from the skies, with leather 
binding and gilt edges complete. The critic 
may say, " What right have you to take 



INTRODUCTION ix 

certain records and reject others? You 
must take all or reject all.'* 

I do not think this is a reasonable remark, 
although of course it is a very general one, 
and for many centuries has effectually si- 
lenced all criticism. 

When a beautiful, holy and consistent 
character is portrayed for us — when such 
teachings as the Lord's Prayer and the Ser- 
mon on the Mount are given to us in the 
name of Jesus of Nazareth — then I think 
we have a perfect right to reject any inter- 
polations that contradict the spiritual sim- 
plicity of these precepts, and to courageously 
declare that we stand by our Lord's teach- 
ings as a whole, and not by every text in 
which they have been conveyed to us. 

It is *Uhe letter that killeth." How 
many stock arguments have been used by 
superficial critics, anxious to belittle a char- 
acter too far above their spiritual apprehen- 
sion ? 

We are continually told that Jesus of 
Nazareth was hard, indifferent and wanting 
in reverence for His parents and in sym- 
pathy with their natural anxiety about 
Him ; as, for example when He was lost to 
them for three days and found at last in the 
Temple. 



X INTRODUCTION 

It is by clinging to the letter whilst re- 
jecting the spirit, that all these absurdities 
have been made possible : misapprehensions 
on the part of His friends, and futile criti- 
cisms (such as the one just quoted) on the 
part of His foes — foes only through lack of 
spiritual perception. 

The clerical world as a whole, both in 
Anglican and Roman Catholic communi- 
ties, is stepping backwards instead of for- 
wards, admiring its own handiwork in the 
Past J so absorbed over the details of its craft 
that it is absolutely blind to the fact that a few 
more steps will bring it to the brink of the prec- 
ipice. 

If it is not to be Spiritual Evolution in 
the Churches, then it will most certainly be 
Spiritual Revolution outside of them I Is 
it not time for all those who know that this 
accurately describes the present crisis to 
come forward boldly and attempt to save 
the situation, even though this can only be 
done by becoming a cause of offense to many? 

Some day we shall be judged more justly 
and therefore more leniently. 

It is a small matter that we shall then be 
beyond the judgment of men. 

E. Katharine Bates. 



PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND 
CHRISTIANITY 

PART I 
CHAPTER I 

THEOLOGY — ANCIENT AND MODERN 

In all thoughtful lives there must be 
critical moments — revealing moments, when 
a new truth flashes across our mental screen 
or an old truth takes on sinews and flesh 
and the breath of life comes into the dry 
bones, as in the valley of EzekieFs vision, V 
and that special truth lives for us for the 
first time in our experience. 

These revealing moments appear to come 
to us " out of the blue," but it is not so in 
reality. For long months — often for long 
years — the seed has been lying and germi- 
nating under the soil of our subconscious 
being, and then comes at last the critical 
moment when it is strong enough and suffi- 
ciently developed to push aside its old en- 
vironment and emerge into the sunshine of 

1 



2 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

the upper air. These moments come to the 
individual and they come also to the Race. 

It seems to many good and earnest and 
capable men and women that such a racial 
moment has now arrived. It is impossible 
any longer to ignore that push from the 
heavy superincumbent soil into the light of 
day. The only question now is, How shall 
we deal with it ? 

" Orush it down hy all means — at any costy^ 
has been the cry of many in past years. 
*^ It is a poisonous weed — not a healthy and 
edible plant — ignore it or crush it We will 
have none of this insidious poison in our well- 
ordered garden plots. ^^ 

But if the time is past when such growths 
can be ignored, it is equally past when such 
growths can be crushed. Root out the 
green shoots in one place — they will inevi- 
tably crop up in still greater force and 
number in a dozen other spots. 

To drop metaphor, new truths are com- 
ing into the world, and the burning ques- 
tion for all of us is no longer whether we 
can go on ignoring and crushing them. 
Experience has surely proved by this time 
the futility of either course? No! What 
we need to find is some means of readjust- 
ing the old bottles to the new wine. 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 3 

Now I think hitherto we have been do- 
ing the best we knew in the way of patch- 
ing up these old bottles, and trying to make 
them capable of holding the strong, new 
wine that is being poured into them daily, 
both by Science and by what has been 
clumsily designated as the New Theology. 

The attempt to accommodate the old to 
the new, and to squeeze the new into the 
old is in its way praiseworthy, and was al- 
most inevitable under recently past condi- 
tions. There is, in fact, an evolutionary 
instinct involved. We feel that there must 
be no gaps — no violent break in the chain 
of events, either mental or physical, and 
this tinkering up of the old to receive the 
new is proof of this very sound instinct. I 
venture to think, however, that we have 
rather overdone matters in this direction. 

We have been so busy in assuring people 
that nothing essential is lost ; in stretching 
texts to cover new conceptions of truth ; in 
an almost Spartan pulling out or chopping 
o£f process, in the wild attempt to fit new 
facts into old sockets, that we have not al- 
ways taken time to notice the real outcome 
of our laudable endeavors. 

Now I think one result has been that or- 
thodox people feel, and quite rightly feel, 



4 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

that they have not been treated fairly. 
Dust has been thrown in their eyes, but 
after a short period of bewildered vision 
they have washed it out, and are prepared 
to affirm with imperturbable decision that 
nothing has been really altered by our ex- 
planations and ingenious suggestions — that 
the Bible says one thing and we say an- 
other, and pretend that the two are really 
one, looked at from the proper angle. Such 
persons may have honestly tried to be open- 
minded, but the end of it is that they feel 
they have been hoodwinked, that symbol- 
ism and analogy have been played for all 
they are worth, and that the result has been 
complete failure, so far as they themselves 
are concerned, and a failure accompanied 
by quite unnecessary mental and spiritual 
confusion, forced upon them by our meth- 
ods. Black is black and white is white, 
and although you may get some shades of 
gray by mixing up the two, it is useless to 
contend that the gray and the original 
black, or the gray and the original white, 
are identical. 

I have great sympathy for those amongst 
the orthodox who feel that they have been 
unfairly treated in this way. Our intentions 
have been good, but I think our methods 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 5 

have often been extremely bad. We have 
taken texts and given them a symbolical 
meaning when it suited our purpose, and we 
have taken texts and given them a literal 
meaning when that suited our purpose. The 
fact that the purpose itself has been an excel- 
lent one, i. e.y to reconcile old texts with new 
truths, does not affect the question except 
so far as motive is concerned. 

It was perhaps the only possible method, 
some years ago, by which to avoid the un- 
doubted disasters attending all iconoclastic 
movements. But ever-increasing light has 
been thrown upon many matters since then, 
and I do not think it is any longer honest 
to fool ourselves or to attempt to fool others 
into the belief that the Evangelists and the 
Apostles said one thing, but that they really 
intended all the time to convey an entirely 
different meaning — often a contradictory 
one — and that exaggerated Eastern sym- 
bolism, plus types and analogies, will cover 
the whole ground. 

They will not, and I think the sooner we 
are honest enough to admit this, the better 
both for ourselves and for those we may 
endeavor to teach. 

That Christ^s personal teaching should 
have come down to us so practically intact, 



6 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

SO little stained by the orthodox beliefs of 
the *^ milieu " in which He lived, is proof 
positive of the Divine Spirit brooding over 
the work of His recorders. But apart from 
this, we have numerous examples of the 
*' stained-glass " element which accompanies, 
more or less, all inspirational or automatic 
writing of the present day. We have had 
volumes written to try and prove that the 
disciples did not look forward to a speedy 
and almost immediate second coming of 
their Lord to reign in majesty upon the 
earth. What does it all amount to? Is 
any one really convinced by these ingenious 
suggestions ? Has not the time come when 
it is truer and therefore wiser to acknowl- 
edge that the same difficulties, which all 
psychics experience in keeping the channel 
unstained by the personality, must have 
affected these recorders also ; in a lesser 
degree, doubtless, because we must believe 
that a book with such a mission would have 
very special guardianship. But the writers 
were human as ourselves, and liable to 
make mistakes with the best of us. 

I do not wish to plead for a broader theol- 
ogy. We have that, thank God. Scarcely 
any educated man nowadays would get up 
in his pulpit or on any public platform to 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 7 

preach or teach the old crude horrors of a 
physical and eternal Hell — terms which are 
in themselves mutually destructive. For 
how could a Hell of physical flames and 
physical torture be everlasting ? The very 
idea is absurd in a scientific age. As an old 
Scotch lady said to me once in New Zealand 
— not intending to be blasphemous, I am 
quite sure — " Why, my dear, if you come 
to think of it, it is impossible ! Either it 
would kill us, or it wouldn't kill us. If we 
w^ere put out of existence it wouldn't matter 
to us, and if we were not, why then, we 
should be bound to get used to it in time.^' 
I quote this to show the very bathos to 
which such teaching must lead, so soon 
as our mental conceptions are ahead of 
it, and so soon as we have learned to 
think, 

T have heard my friend, the late Dr. 
Alfred Williams Momerie, say more than 
once to his congregation : ** My dear 
friends, I'm afraid you really must think. 
I am extremely sorry for you, because I 
know how you hate thinking, and it is a 
nuisance sometimes, but I see no way of 
avoiding it. I cannot do the thinking for 
you." 

The fact is, many of us don't think and 



8 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

won't think, simply because we are afraid 
to contemplate where it must leave us. 

We know now that we have only ex- 
changed a physical Hell, of endless and 
impossible torture, for a very real Hell, 
which begins here and noWj so soon as we 
become sensitive enough to realize it, and 
will continue just as long as we live in 
separation from and antagonism to, the 
Divine Source of our being, whose presence 
with us spells Love and Life Eternal, and 
whose absence means Darkness and Hate 
and Separation and Remorse. 

An old friend of mine, one of the greatest 
Mutiny heroes, who was more terribly 
wounded than almost any other man who 
has lived to tell the tale, said to me once 
when I was quite a young girl : " How 
much more terrible mental suffering may 
be than physical, and yet how little sympa- 
thv one receives with the former as com- 
pared with the latter ! " He continued : 
" When I was cut to pieces out in India, 
every one was full of sympathy and goodness 
to me. Yet I have suffered infinitel}^ more 
in my mind and spirit, and no one has 
shown the slightest sympathy.'* 

There are two obvious reasons for this, 
which I was too inexperienced in my school- 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 9 

days to suggest. One is, of course, that 
mental scars don't show as physical wounds 
generally do, and the other that many 
people have not yet reached the point where 
they themselves are capable of any deep 
mental and spiritual suffering. But the 
words made a deep impression upon me at 
the time, and they occur to me now in con- 
nection with the orthodox Hell, and the 
modern conception of spiritual separation 
and remorse. Many, in the terrible grip of 
the latter, might also be inclined to think 
that any physical suffering would be a relief 
from the spiritual torture. 

That which makes even a spiritual Hell 
impossible from the point of view of Retribu- 
tion rather than Reformation, is the un- 
doubted fact that only the most spiritually 
advanced, and therefore what we should 
call "the best" people, are capable of reali- 
zing such a Hell at all. The sensualist, the 
materialist, the man of crude and cruel 
impulses, would be proof (either in this 
sphere or anj other) against the gnawing 
of remorse, or the agony of separation from 
the more divine part of his nature ; which 
is obviously at present a sealed book to 
him. 

Therefore we are at once confronted by 



10 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

the awkward fact that only the most highly 
organized and sensitive people can ever be 
in the most acute form of spiritual Hell, 
whereas the least developed and most wicked 
men and women would live in a sort of 
base material Heaven of their own, abso- 
lutely protected from all spiritual suffering 
when once they have left the theatre of 
their evil deeds, where material penalties 
might reach them. These two states sug- 
gest little difficulty when looked at from 
the evolutionary point of view, for they are 
obvious and inevitable. 

" The wicked man " may hug his base 
Heaven to his breast for centuries or even 
aeons, but some day the turning-point must 
come ; if only because Evil has no life in 
itself, and is only galvanized into temporary 
life by its victims. When that day comes 
— no matter where or when — then Hell 
begins for the emerging soul, and will con- 
tinue until the purging process is complete. 

We sometimes hear people talk about the 
" New Theology " as a sign of the times — 
of the lazy, luxurious, selfish, motor-car 
times ! *' They even want to get rid of Hell, 
with their nasty, selfish, luxurious ways." 

I have actually heard this said. It 
seemed to me just a step in advance of the 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 11 

more general remark of a few years ago, 
which has been addressed to me personally- 
many times : " OA, then if you donH believe 
in Hell, why should we not all be as wicked as 
we like f " 

The last time this was said to me, I felt 
justified in answering the lady thus : 

** If that is really your view of the matter, 
I am thankful that you do believe in a 
physical Hell ; and what you say shows me 
that, repugnant as the idea is to most pro- 
gressive minds, the old orthodox teaching 
has had its uses from the police-ofiSce point 
of view.'* 

Then again with regard to the old beliefs 
in the Atonement as a Blood sacrifice to 
propitiate an angry God whose laws had 
been broken. I remember when I was quite 
a tiny child, with possibly a fairly logical 
head on very small shoulders, how that 
question of the Atonement worried and per- 
plexed me. At times it seemed quite clear 
that only my own wicked obstinacy and 
stupidity prevented my being absolutely 
satisfied with the explanations given me on 
the subject. But at other moments some- 
thing stronger than myself seemed to rebel 
and to say, '* No ! it isn't clear, and it isn't 
fair, and all the faith in the world won't 



12 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

make it clear, any more than it could make 
two and two equal five." The puzzle for me 
was this : I was told in the Bible and in 
church that Jesus Christ had died to save 
us and that God had promised Him every 
soul in the human race as a consequence of 
and reward for His death upon the cross. 
Then again I was told that a great many 
people would not be saved, because they 
would die without performing some act of 
faith or being converted — whatever that 
might exactly mean — a process at any rate 
which appeared a very dim chance, so far 
as I was personally concerned. Even at 
seven or eight years of age I had tried hard 
— and often succeeded — in working up some 
kind of religious emotion, which made me 
hope that this mysterious '' conversion " 
might some day take place — but it never 
did. One was always naughty again under 
normal temptations, and the exalted mood 
passed and left a poor, little, lonely child, 
with no one to confide in, and with less and 
less hope of this mysterious event taking 
place in her life. Then despair and depres- 
sion gave way to honest childish indigna- 
tion. It was all so horribly unfair ! What 
nonsense it was to talk about God's promise 
to His Son that every single human soul 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 13 

should be saved, and then this mysterious 
*' belief and conversion " were smuggled in 
somehow, to account for so many people 
having to go to Hell on account of their 
flagrant sins and wickedness I It may 
sound very blasphemous, but I am sure a 
great many more children of a thoughtful 
turn used to worry and perplex themselves 
over such questions than any of the '^ grown- 
ups " realized. Again I say, " Thank 
God ! '^ that however selfish and material- 
istic we may be nowadays, the poor little 
children at least have no such heavy bur- 
dens to bear. At eight years of age I could 
have provided material for another Cry of 
the ChildreUj from some such point of view, 
had Mrs. Barrett Browning been available 
to put it into words for me. And how 
many of the children of those days might 
say the same ! Now that the hideous old 
dogma of the Atonement has merged by 
slow degrees into the beautiful and inspir- 
ing doctrine of the At-onement, through 
the fruition and the example of the One 
perfect human life lived upon earth, a life 
which must needs lead those who can be in- 
spired by it into still closer conscious union 
with the Source of their being, have we not 
reason to rejoice in the grand example 



14 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

given to us of the continuity of Evolu- 
tion ? 

As in the physical world, inferior forms 
are always being replaced by superior or- 
ganizations, so we can trace — even within 
the last thirty or forty years — how the 
crude and often cruel dogmas of the past 
have been ever tending towards higher forms 
of Belief and nobler conceptions of Truth. 
Some great truth has lain at the basis of 
all these crude theological ideas, just as the 
protoplasm and the amoeba have lain at the 
basis of all organized human life. We don't 
hold that protoplasm and those earliest forms 
of life in contempt, if we are normal and in- 
telligent beings — we acknowledge our debt 
to them, and this is just what I think w^e 
ought to do with regard to the beliefs and 
dogmas of earlier centuries. They have 
been, after all, a sort of theological proto- 
plasm, which has formed the basis for our 
spiritual life, without which the latter, so 
far as we know, might not have been possi- 
ble to our slowly evolving consciousness. 
That many men and women would disown 
such indebtedness has little significance. 
It simply means that they are taking short 
and strictly personal view^s of a very big 
subject, and prefer to ignore the unity of all 



THEOLOGY— ANCIENT AND MODERN 15 

life, physical and spiritual, and the links by 
which they are held in the great universe 
of Spirit, as well as in the great universe of 
physical conditions. 



CHAPTER II 

SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 

A REVOLUTION in the domain of religious 
thought, as radical, as far-reaching and, per- 
haps, even more important than the revolu- 
tion in astronomy connected with the name 
of Copernicus, has set in. It has practically 
taken place within the memory of many 
living men and women, in fact during the 
last fifty years. The first feeble notes of pro- 
test were sounded when the once famous 
volume of Essays and Reviews was published. 
That seems such a far-away cry, that it is 
almost difficult to realize that the well- 
known Mafeking hero. General Baden- 
Powell, is the son of one of the chief contrib- 
utors to that well-known and much-abused 
book. Some years ago I was crossing the 
Atlantic with Mr. Warrington Baden-Powell 
(another of the professor's sons), and we 
chanced upon this subject of Essays and 
Reviews. I said to him : " It is years 
since I read the book, but I suppose now it 
would be considered quite mildly unortho- 
dox, compared with later literature of the 

same kind ? '' 

16 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 17 

" Dear me, yes," he replied, laughing. 
'* I should go further than that, and say it 
would be considered a quite mildly ortho- 
dox contribution to religious thought in 
the present day." Yet the authors were 
Anathema Maranatha for many years, after 
this early indiscretion, although one of 
them, as we all know, lived to be Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. 

Then came poor Bishop Colenso, who was 
howled down by an infuriated mob of relig- 
ious enthusiasts for his sinful arithmetical 
calculations touching the Levitical books of 
the Bible. I remember as a child thinking 
that he must be a terribly wicked man if he 
deserved half the abuse that was poured 
upon him so freely in my presence. 

/was brought up as a child in the strongly 
Calvinistic section of the Church of Eng- 
land, and later in what used to be called 
the religious-aristocratic world ; but the 
essential doctrines were much the same in 
High Church as Low Church. The chief 
difference lay in the more or less ornate 
form of the services and in the fact that the 
High Church clergymen being often men 
of more culture and education than their 
Evangelical brothers, were less addicted to 
" pulpit thumping " and the sensational 



vj 



18 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

methods and lurid descriptions which were 
sometimes summed up graphically as the 
^^ fire-and-faggot '^ style of oratory. 

There were many good, earnest and kind- 
hearted men amongst them ; as also amongst 
the High Church party, and in those days 
all were equally happy in one important 
particular. Nothing very essential had 
happened to shake their faith, to rouse 
awkward questions, to suggest difficulties — 
in a word to make them think. Essays and 
Reviews and Colenso's embarrassing numer- 
ical calculations, were but as voices crying 
in the wilderness, which made the warm 
nests of the orthodox Christians appear 
more cozy and desirable than ever by con- 
trast. Faith in ** Revealed Truth " was the 
test of all goodness ; I had almost said of all 
morality. Certainly good deeds, and even 
character, without this special faith, were 
scarcely considered respectable, and most 
certainly not admirable. 

It has been said that Truth is always 
born in a manger and reared in fear of 
Herod. The Herod of the mid- Victorian 
days took the color of social degradation 
and disabilities, and very often of unmerited 
and cruel abuse. 

Even good, kind people, who would not 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 19 

have injured a free-thinking acquaintance 
physically for all the world, were much too 
free-speaking in their condemnation, and the 
opprobrious terms " Infidel " and " Atheist," 
too often hurtled through the social atmos- 
phere — winged arrows dipped in gall. 

We have changed all that — again, thank 
God ! We have learned some respect for the 
opinions of honest men, even when these 
differ from our own in religious matters. 

Thanks to the early pioneers of whom 
mention has been made, men have learned 
to think, to question, to realize that God asks 
for an intelligent love, not for grovelling 
adoration or a faith born of wilful ignorance. 
How can He who is All Truth fear Truth ? 
Then why should we, His children, do so, 
and think to curry favor by such an atti- 
tude ? 

The apotheosis of ignorance is past, but 
there are many difficulties still in the path 
of any intelligent clergyman who has 
thought for himself, reverently and yet 
courageously, and would fain make his 
flock do likewise, if he dared ! 

I think clergymen nowadays receive scant 
sympathy for what is, in fact, an extraordi- 
narily difficult position. I am not speak- 
ing of the seventy or eighty per cent, who 



20 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

have taken orders without experiencing the 
slightest difficulty in doing so, or in sub- 
scribing to the Thirty-nine Articles and 
anything else included in the doctrine of the 
Church of England. Some of these may be 
so saturated by tradition and custom that 
their minds are incapable of facing facts 
which would seem to throw the smallest 
doubt upon any of their cherished beliefs. 
Others have what I should call comfortable 
consciences, and their mentality is non-in- 
flammable. It is fire-proof, so far as Sci- 
ence, Literature and Philosophy are con- 
cerned, when such subjects menace their 
religious tenets. (These latter have been 
settled once for all.) Many are excellent 
men, doing most valuable work, and ena- 
bled to do it with a cheerful heart, owing 
to the very limitations of their outlook. 

But then we come to the twenty per cent. 
— have I put the figure high enough for 
these days ? — who cannot look upon things 
from this comfortable standpoint. 

They have minds that must be fed — that 
cry out for food as persistently as their 
bodies do. Unfortunately for themselves 
these minds are acute and analytical. It is 
impossible for them to accept scientific con- 
clusions when they concern chemical com- 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 21 

binations or other facts of physics, and to 
reject them when they speak with just as 
certain a voice regarding the approximate 
age of man on this earth, or the sun stand- 
ing still whilst Joshua finished his battle, 
and a dozen other matters where modern 
knowledge and ancient tradition are hope- 
lessly divorced from one another. 

We are very quick to denounce such men 
— to gloat over their supposed hypocrisy — 
to condemn their subservience to the loaves 
and fishes, and we often speak with hard 
and unsympathetic impatience of what they 
ought to do : " The fellow has no right to 
stand up in church and read or preach what 
he doesn't believe, and what he knows no- 
body else believes nowadays I He has no 
right to take money from a State Church to 
which he is no longer absolutely faithful in 
his innermost heart. He swallowed the 
Thirty-nine Articles and everything else 
necessary when he took orders. If he was 
too young to know what he was doing then, 
and if he is old enough now to know better, 
he should be man enough to say so. He 
ought to resign a living that he can no 
longer conscientiously retain." 

This sounds very specious, and no doubt 
has some truth in it. On the other hand, 



22 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AKD CHRISTIANITY 

how would these critics act themselves un- 
der similar circumstances? Probably on 
the same lines as the man whom they re- 
proach. He may very justly say, *' It is not 
as if I alone rejected some of the Articles or 
Creeds in which I have declared my belief. 
There is probably not a thinking member 
of my congregation who believes them all 
literally, and if we are allowed to take some 
things literally and others symbolically, 
there is elbow-room enough in the Church 
for all of us, preachers and congregation 
alike. 

" The Prayer-book certainly is out of date 
lamentably in certain respects and needs 
revision as much as the Bible did. If the 
authorities refuse to give us this relief, well, 
then we all suffer alike and must make the 
best of it for the time being. The clergy- 
man and the congregation are both repeat- 
ing, occasionally, words which don't repre- 
sent to them positive truth, unless indeed 
these have been twisted and distorted from 
the obvious original meanings. You might 
just as well say that the congregations ought 
to march out of church and refuse to return 
until their Prayer-books have been brought 
up to date I Moreover, I am earning my 
living honestly, so far as my work in the 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 23 

parish is concerned. I can visit the sick 
and help the poor and comfort the miserable 
and get up innocent amusements in the 
parish for those who would otherwise be 
thrown upon the public-houses and less 
innocent forms of diversion. All this must 
be taken into account. Lastly, I have a 
duty also to my wife and family — these are 
obligations which I have incurred, and 
which, as a man of honor, as well as a hus- 
band and father, I must discharge. What 
avenues are open to an ex-parson who has 
given up his orders? Moreover, I don't 
want to give up my orders. I feel that the 
life is suited to me and I to it. Am I to 
throw everything over because I cannot at 
heart wholly subscribe to the antiquated 
dogmas and forms through which I received 
my ordination ? If I were a man of suffi- 
cient private means I might see things 
differently and be prepared for the sacrifice 
of a congenial profession, which would only 
touch myself, and not bring my wife and 
family to penury. But in any case I con- 
sider my present position justified, when 
judged by common sense and common 
honesty, and not by carping critics.'* 

I have put my own words into the mouth 
of my imaginary parson, but I believe a 



24 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

great many are thinking and acting upon 
some such line of reasoning, whether con- 
sciously or unconsciously. And I think 
there is a great deal to be said for it. I 
remember the late Dr. Momerie found great 
relief from the fact that his own ordination 
had taken place when he was no longer re- 
quired to subscribe to the doctrines but to 
the doctrine of the Church of England. 

I confess this seemed to me always rather 
a quibble, but it afforded him much satisfac- 
tion. When clever and capable men are 
reduced to this sort of argument, surely the 
time has come to face facts boldly, and 
bring our theology up to date ? 

Science has had to reconsider and readjust 
her facts again and again. When the older 
theories concerning light and heat were 
upset, and the modern bouleversement of 
scientific opinion as regards motion and 
matter took place, the situation was not met 
by any obstinate forcing of old text-books 
on to young students. Why should not the 
same argument hold good concerning theol- 
ogy? 

" The two subjects are not analogous," I 
hear some one say. But that is just the 
initial mistake. They are analogous. It is 
we who have made the water-tight compart- 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 25 

merits for theological science. Theology 
claims the Bible as a divine or rather the 
divine revelation. Science has an equal 
right to claim Nature as a divine revelation, 
and a really more reliable one in many 
ways, since her credentials are ever with us, 
in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, 
renewed day by day, and teaching to all but 
blind eyes and deaf ears the beautiful lessons 
which our Lord drew from Nature so con- 
tinually. These lessons do not depend upon 
oral or written tradition nor on the uncer- 
tain memory of man. Neither can they be 
falsified nor lost, nor burned, nor destroyed 
for us in any way. Our Lord seldom 
referred to books or records, but again and 
again He bade us find our lessons, our in- 
spiration and our wisdom, in Nature. The 
methods of our Lord Jesus Christ were 
directly opposed to the isolation system 
which men have set up between Nature and 
God — between the science of Nature and 
the science of God. After all, science only 
means knowledge — the knowledge of God's 
laws, so far as we have gone in experience 
of them. Science per se is not the big, black, 
relentless bogie that most of us seem to con- 
ceive, and to dress up in frock-coat and 
spectacles and a sniffy and rather superior 



26 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

way of talking to, and generally snubbing 
us I That is our conception of Science as it 
too often materializes for us, but it is a very 
narrow and limited conception of a very 
big Truth, and Jesus knew this Truth and 
was not afraid of it. For Him it was the 
Father's Truth, to be traced in the fields 
and amongst the flowers as much as any- 
where else in His Father's Kingdom. Why 
should it not be the same for us? Why 
must we have ecclesiastical bogies as well as 
scientific bogies, when the truth above both 
of them is so impersonal, so simple, so 
glorious and so identical, as soon as the 
music has been beaten out and science and 
theology take their rightful places in that 
grand orchestra ; no longer as hated rivals, 
but as faithful and loyal helpers in the 
universal chorus of wisdom and happiness? 
Before closing this chapter I should like 
to revert for a few minutes to what I have 
already said as regards the twenty per cent, 
of clergymen of the present day who would 
hail some relief from the antiquated forms 
of doctrine to which they have subscribed. 
I have referred there more especially to 
men of known progressive tendencies, but 
there are also many men in orders whom 
Fate has placed amongst the most orthodox 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 27 

and Evangelical of their class; honorable 
men, who have done their duty admirably 
and given no sort of '* occasion to the en- 
emy," men beloved in their parishes, and 
whose names are synonymous with all that 
is most fixed and immutable in orthodox 
theology. Yet these very men require such 
relief as I have suggested even far more 
urgently than any others. Why ? Because 
their personal intelligence is in advance of 
their personal creed, and whilst remaining 
outwardly loyal to the latter, they have in- 
evitably given away the key of their inner 
fortress to the advancing troops of doubt 
and perplexity, who may never take the 
citadel, but will always carry on occasional 
and most disturbing raids at its base. 

I am not talking at random, but speak of 
what I know through personal experience. 
Owing, perhaps, to having led a very de- 
tached life through the force of rather 
unique circumstances, and having also a 
fairly broad outlook upon life in general, it 
has been my fate to have had rather excep- 
tional opportunities of getting to the " back 
of things." Men have often said to me, " I 
always forget when I am talking to you 
that I am not talking to another man." 
This may or may not be a compliment, but 



28 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

at any rate it enlarges one's mental area. I 
venture to think that a man will often say 
more concerning his inner life to an imper- 
sonal sort of woman than he would or could 
say to another man. However this may be, 
I have certainly heard some curious confes- 
sions in my life. 

I need only mention two instances to 
prove the truth of what I have said as re- 
gards the undoubted fact, that even a nar- 
row creed {given intelligence) will not protect 
its disciple nowadays from embarrassing 
mental situations. 

In both cases I take instances of men who 
have passed away during the last few years. 
The first was that of a celebrated professor 
— a clergyman — in one of the British Uni- 
versities. 

He combined extraordinary intelligence, 
not merely in his own department but in 
all branches of human knowledge, with an 
apparently childlike faith, not only in God 
as his Father, but also in the special tenets 
of the strictly Evangelical section of the 
Church of England, to which he belonged. 
I have often heard him say, with beautiful 
humility, that it was not for him to ques- 
tion but to accept, and I am quite certain 
he was sincerely convinced that in saying 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 29 

this he was describing his permanent atti- 
tude towards those questions (I remember 
he especially mentioned the six days of cre- 
ation, etc.) which his special form of belief 
bound him to accept, but which his intel- 
lect and scientific knowledge alike rejected. 
Oddly enough his position, from the op- 
posite end of the pole, reproduced the exact 
position of the extremely intelligent but 
equally devout Roman Catholic of the pres- 
ent day. I had for many years accepted 
my professor's wonderful feat of mental 
gymnastics at face value, and should have 
done so to this day, had I not chanced to 
spend one special Christmas in his house. 
We were a small but cheerful party on that 
Christmas Eve. The professor had been 
showing us some most interesting photo- 
graphs and explaining them in his inimi- 
table way — making the dry bones live in 
very real fashion. 

By degrees the other members of the 
party had drifted away to bed, and ulti- 
mately he and I were left alone. I don't 
know how the conversation between us 
turned upon religious difficulties, but I do 
remember my extreme astonishment when 
he quite innocently told me of long talks 
with the vicar of the University Church, 



30 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

and how they had paced up and down in 
that very room, engaged in the rather hope- 
less task of attempting to square their hon- 
estly-held creed with their intellectual 
knowledge and development. This same 
vicar, by the by, had only a short time 
previously prosecuted a clergyman in the 
neighborhood for preaching a sermon upon 
miracles in his pulpit, which was not 
" quite sound." 

The other case was that of a very old 
friend of my childhood, many years my 
senior, and whom I had always heard 
spoken of as a very bulwark of Evangelical 
creed. He was a capital parish priest, and 
he and his wife were splendid " workers," 
as the technical phrase goes. He was offi- 
cially connected with a north country cathe- 
dral where I paid long visits in my girl- 
hood. Later these ceased to a great extent, 
but my old friend often came to see me 
when business or recreation brought him to 
London. Now he also was a man of un- 
doubted ability, and I often regretted the 
cramping mental conditions under which 
he lived, and marvelled at the self-hj^pno- 
tism which made it apparently possible for 
a man of that calibre to remain perfectly 
satisfied with his narrow creed. 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 31 

But during these visits to me in London^ 
when we often discussed religious problems, 
I found that his mentality was by no means 
caged in the way I had naturally supposed. 
His speculations covered quite as wide a 
range as my own — rather wider if anything. 
He generally ended our talks by saying in 
a rather deprecating way, '' Of course j I 
should not think it wise to discuss these matters 
with any member of my congregation,^* which 
I could easily understand. I knew him in- 
timately up to the time of his death, and 
can testify to the fact that his spiritual out- 
look never ceased to be critical of the nar- 
row form of creed which he had professed 
all his life. I am quite sure that he was 
never consciously disloyal to it, but these 
are the facts. 

The upshot is this : Evolution of the 
reasoning faculties cannot be stemmed by 
any broom yet manufactured in the Part- 
ington Factory. These reasoning faculties 
may sometimes be found combined with 
the most narrow religious beliefs — that is 
often a question of circumstance or hered- 
ity. Some souls are of such a type, or 
rather have arrived at such a point of 
growth, that it is impossible for them to 
endure mental coercion. They break the 



32 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

bars of the cage at any cost. Others have 
not arrived at this point and are therefore 
content with the comforts of the cage, so 
long as they are able to make little excur- 
sions from it at times. Then they fly back 
to it as a refuge from the cold blasts out- 
side. I have only given two instances — I 
could have given many more, to illustrate 
my point. Therefore the fact that large 
numbers of clergymen are working, and ap- 
parently are content to work, within the 
limitations of a specially cramping form 
of creed, is really no sort of proof 
that they are mentally as well as out- 
wardly imprisoned by their creed. All 
forms of work are a very wholesome cor- 
rective to too much introspection, and 
the needs of a large parish (or even a 
small one if energetically administered) 
must be a great sedative for too much 
mental activity, and will have a very 
calming effect upon the troublesome prob- 
lems that so often torment the man of 
leisure. 

This, however, does not in the least alter 
the fact that many more men in orders 
would hail some reasonable changes in the 
ritual they are bound to follow than might 
at first sight appear. 



SOME CLERICAL DIFFICULTIES 33 

It all depends upon their special point of 
intellectual development, and this is not by 
any means always indicated by their special 
form of belief. 



CHAPTER III 

A NEW CYCLE 

General Baden-Powell's uncle, Mr. Pi- 
azzi Smyth, wrote a very curious and inter- 
esting book many years ago upon the great 
Pyramid, the object of which was to prove 
amongst other things that all the measure- 
naents and calculations connected with this 
special Pyramid of Cheops found their cul- 
minating point and came to an end in 
A. D. 1881/ 

With apologies to the late author of that 
book, I am irresistibly reminded of the 
famous Mother Shipton's prophecy : 

**The world to an end shall come 
In eighteen handred and eighty-one." 

Now the outside world would certainly 
say that Piazzi Smyth's researches had no 
special significance and that Mother Ship- 
ton's doggerel was only an old wife's tale. 
Those of us who know anything of psy- 
chical research and occult science, however, 
may hold a different opinion. Many peo- 
ple consider that a certain cycle in our 

34 



A NEW CYCLE 36 

planet's history was closed about the time 
indicated, and that we are now living in 
the opening years of a new cycle of planet- 
ary existence. In any case it is a fact that 
just in or about the year 1881 various so- 
cieties were started, which still exist, and 
certain remarkable books were produced, 
all dealing with a further sphere of life. 
The Society for Psychical Research was 
started, the Theosophical Society was still 
in its childhood, Madame Blavatsky's re- 
markable books were being written, and 
Edward Maitland and Anna Kingsford were 
giving to the world their contribution to 
thought and teaching in a volume called 
The Perfect Way. 

It was a period of great significance as a 
reaction from the materialism of the pre- 
ceding years, a materialism which was itself 
doubtless a reaction from more superstitious 
times. 

Some sixteen years ago a communication 
came to me automatically from one who 
claimed to have been an old Egyptian 
priest, concerning the great Pyramid and the 
Sphinx. I cannot put my hand upon the pa- 
pers (which were, however, preserved), but 
I can remember that he spoke of the great 
Pyramid as symbolizing the cj^cle through 



36 PSYCHICAL SCIE:N^CE AND CHRISTIANITY 

which the earth had recently passed, and 
the Sphinx as a symbol of the new cycle 
and new conditions just evolving. Cer- 
tainly the last seven or eight years have 
witnessed an enormous increase both in the 
amount of available evidence as to hitherto 
unstudied powers of the human race, and 
(which is still more significant) in the 
amount of interest shown in these re- 
searches by scientific men. Perhaps in It- 
aly and France this has been even more 
marked than in Great Britain, but we also 
can point to a goodly list of quite respect- 
able as well as capable men, who, having 
given some time and trouble as well as 
money to the investigation of psychic 
science, have had the courage of their opin- 
ions in speaking of their results. 

All this has naturally had a great effect 
upon the Press. The cheap sneers and silly 
jokes which were common to all papers, 
daily or weekly, a few years ago, are now 
conspicuous by their absence from the more 
respectable and better-known journals. Not 
one of these now speaks upon these subjects 
in the silly, contemptuous, superior tone of 
only a few years ago. Whatever the private 
opinions of the critics may be, they have 
learned their lesson so far as the general pub- 



A NEW CYCLE 37 

lie is concerned, and know that it is no 
longer considered ^' smart/' but simply 
stupid, to attempt to win the cheap laugh 
of the ignorance of an earlier day. We are 
therefore reminded now pretty constantly 
of the " more things in heaven and earth," 
and the journalists or reviewers, whilst 
" holding their judgment in suspense " (an 
endless suspense apparently), are quite free 
to confess that " some day we may know 
more about these matters than we do at 
present ! " If so, it will hardly be through 
the efforts of these gentlemen to dimin- 
ish the area of their personal absence of 
knowledge I 

But this only touches the fringe of the 
subject. Within the circle of these con- 
verted or at any rate silenced scoffers, come 
the ranks of what may be called the psychic 
outsiders. I mean by this term that large 
and ever-increasing mass of people who are 
mildly interested and quite willing to let 
other people energize in the way of experi- 
ments, and tell them the results. Next 
comes the smaller circle of those not yet 
convinced of the truth of any abnormal 
powers, but willing and anxious to investi- 
gate for themselves ; and, lastly, the inner 
circle of the men and women who have in- 



38 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

vestigated, are convinced, and only differ 
as to the causes and not at all as to the facts 
of extended powers manifested by certain 
individuals, but not as yet normal to the 
whole race. 

We may roughly divide this latter nu- 
cleus into two parts — those who, acknowl- 
edging the truth of the phenomena, limit 
the latter to the extended action of incar- 
nate beings, and those who, from personal 
experiences, have been led to realize the 
cooperative action of incarnate with discar- 
nate entities. 

The grouping of the latter seems to me 
almost entirely a question of temperament, 
which probably is only in such case an- 
other word for evolution. Those who can 
see and hear for themselves on these ex- 
tended spheres accept the testimony of their 
senses just as ordinary mortals accept the 
testimony of their senses on the purely ma- 
terial plane. Those who are limited by an 
intellectual conception without personal ex- 
perience of these more developed senses, 
very naturally reject the evidence of other 
people, which has never been their own. 
They see only illusion and self-hypnotism 
in the convictions of their friends and even 
when convinced mentally of the presence 



A NEW CYCLE 39 

of abnormal phenomena, will put it down, 
naturally and quite rightly from their 
standpoint, to an extension of incarnate in- 
telligence. 

But this chapter more especially concerns 
the comparatively small, yet ever-increasing 
numbers of men and women who, through 
natural capacity, combined with intelligent 
curiosity and interest, have been enabled to 
bridge the gulf of so-called Death, and to 
satisfy themselves that this latter is only 
the gateway of more abundant Life. This 
absolute knowledge only comes, I think — 
only can come — through the removal from 
earth conditions of some one very dear to 
them. 

Outsiders will at once say, " Just so — 
their wishes and desires naturally enable 
them to see what they want to see so in- 
tensely." That is only one side of the ques- 
tion — the more obvious but not the truest 
side. Earthly love is always depicted as 
blind and bandaged, but love raised to a 
higher power becomes clear as it takes flight 
to higher regions. Even the purer and 
more intense earthly love is always the least 
blind. The woman who loves her husband 
with the truest and deepest affection is the 
one who loves him, knowing his faults, not 



40 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

the one who is merel}^ blind to these. This 
holds good of all relations in life. There- 
fore, the keenest love will always be the 
most clear-sighted, the most diflScult to de- 
ceive. According to the measure and the 
purity of our love will be the instinct, the 
" flair " of our recognition of identity. We 
may not be able to pass this perception on 
to others, but we shall not in the long run 
be deceived ourselves, because the sense is 
too subtle, too accurate, too absolute. 

And through some such '' great tribula- 
tion " alone, can positive assurance of the 
continued life of our beloved come to us. 

Those who have loved and lost and found 
their loved ones again will endorse my 
words ; to others the same experience may 
come later. 

Now I think to those who have thus 
found once more husband, or wife, or child, 
there must often come a moment of sadness 
in their joy, especially if they have been 
brought up on orthodox lines of thought. 
We read in the Bible of the blessedness of 
the righteous, of a state of absolute peace 
and joy, of the glories of the Redeemed, un- 
der symbols of the glassy sea and green 
palms and gold crowns, and so forth. We 
sing fervently " Forever with the Lord/' 



A NEW CYCLE 41 

and have been taught to look for the rest of 
the *' Blessed Dead." Some, indeed, im- 
agine a period of vague waiting until the 
number of the Redeemed is completed, and 
all are caught up to meet the Lord in the 
heavens, but the goal is ever the same — rest 
and peace and entire freedom from sin and 
suffering. Of course I am now referring 
specially to the conceptions of the Anglo- 
Catholic Church. 

Into this rather vague but comfortable 
and comforting picture of our future, mod- 
ern research has suddenly burst with curi- 
ous and variable results. Some have wel- 
comed any facts which seem to give them 
back their dead, not as a cold abstraction 
for the future, but as a living, blessed ex- 
perience in the present ; but even these 
have sometimes been saddened by remem- 
bering the gulf which lies between the old 
conceptions and the new conceptions, 
founded on the new facts. ** How different 
it all is in reality from what we were taught 
to believe ! What a different tale is told 
by those who come back to us in visions 
and speech and evidential communications, 
from the descriptions of life after death 
given to us in our Bibles! Why have the 
facts been withheld from us in an inspired 



42 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

revelation ? How can we believe anything 
when we have been so terribly misled?" I 
think some such thoughts must have passed 
through many minds. Roman Catholics 
are, of course, saved this heart-burning in 
the rare cases where they are allowed to in- 
vestigate ps3^chical phenomena, or where 
they take ** French leave " to do so, because 
they can spell Purgatory as Probation ; or 
with one letter less and call it Progress. 

I want to suggest a very simple view of 
the case, which seems to me highly reason- 
able, and is certainly somewhat explan- 
atory. 

I must first say, however, that I do this 
with no sort of idea of Bible apologia. I 
can admire what is admirable and reject 
what does not appeal to me in the most 
wonderful book in the world, delivered 
through human scribes and inevitably con- 
veying somewhat of their limitations in ad- 
dition to their often glorious inspiration. 
The people who tell you that the Bible was 
not written to teach geometry or geography 
or archaeology, and that this fact explains all 
possible mistakes and inaccuracies in it, 
have always appeared to me well-meaning 
but lamentably wanting in common sense 
and, one is almost tempted to add, common 



A NEW CYCLE 43 

honesty. Regarded as a vindication of the 
divine inspiration of the Scriptures as a 
whole, it is the sort of argument one would 
expect from a Jesuit priest or a very illog- 
ical woman. 

So, in putting forward my view, I do so 
entirely on its own merits and not in the 
least with any idea of squaring Bible asser- 
tions to fit in with modern facts. 

It has always seemed to me that the 
simplest explanations are generally the most 
comprehensive and the most satisfactory. 
And this holds good also of simple analo- 
gies. Earth training and discipline are often 
more than suggestive of a big human school, 
and certainly God's dealings with us in- 
dividually appear to be those of a loving 
and yet tenderly severe Father with the 
children whom He cherishes too much to 
leave uncorrected. Carry this idea a little 
further and it seems to shed some light on 
the orthodox descriptions of Heaven as a 
place of absolute bliss and absolute per- 
fection, which we find in the Bible. I am 
not now thinking of the details given, for 
instance, in the Book of the Revelation of 
St. John, and rather flippantly and fool- 
ishly stigmatized as '* the Heaven of a 
jeweller^s shop " by those who are incapable 



44 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

of appreciating the symbolism, and would 
seem to know nothing of the mystic prop- 
erties of color and precious stones, even in 
the physical world. 

I refer only to the state of perfect right- 
eousness as well as perfect joy described in 
the Scriptures. As no intervening stages 
are very clearly defined, this state has 
rather naturally been hitherto taken as 
describing the next conscious experience of 
the soul which escapes the fate of the ^* Un- 
believer " ; the latter being supposed to be 
irrevocably fixed at the moment of death, 
even if an interlude is allowed before the 
punishment of such sinners is actually 
carried out. Even the horrible doctrine 
of an Eternal Hell may have had its uses 
in earlier ages when moral instincts were 
less developed — let us hope it may have 
been so. 

But my suggestion is this : An earthly 
father will sometimes hold up the picture 
of a great man — great in learning or in 
politics or as a judge or a famous com- 
mander of men, and will say to his little 
son, ** Look, my child, at the picture of 
this great and good man. If you area good 
boy and learn your lessons well, and do 
everything father and mother think best 



A NEW CYCLE 45 

for you to do, some day you may grow up 
to be as good and great as he is." 

He points out the goal to be aimed at, 
but a wise father does not weary and depress 
his child at the moment by telling him of 
the hard school work that lies ahead — nor 
of the University training that must come 
later — nor of the many hard knocks that he 
is bound to experience in life before the 
much-desired consummation takes place. 
May not our Father in Heaven have treated 
us in exactly similar fashion? — have allowed 
and even inspired these visions of the 
Blessed, to St. John the Divine, in loving 
care for the childhood years of the human 
race ? Now that the human child is grow- 
ing up, he must learn to take his responsi- 
bilities and to face the facts of his spiritual 
life. He is reaching an age when the full 
truth will no longer appal but may surely 
rather inspire him, if he has any noble in- 
stincts? He will feel the longing to 
exercise his faculties to the utmost, and a 
life of earnest work and ultimate reward 
will no longer oppress and frighten him, as 
it might have done — probably must have 
done — if suddenly sprung upon him whilst 
still in early childhood. 

Dr. Phillips Brooks said to me once when 



46 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

I was speaking to him of the long and 
weary road to be traversed in the spiritual 
life : *' Well, if I could have had my 
choice whether to be created a man or an 
angel, I hope " (he paused and looked at 
me with a bright smile, then repeated), '' I 
hoj)e I should have had the pluck to choose 
to be a many 

I cannot do better than close my chapter 
with these brave words — words that may 
bring comfort and fresh strength and 
courage to those of us who are sometimes 
weary and footsore, and look with sinking 
hearts upon the long vista of continuous 
effort and warfare which our evolving 
spiritual consciousness is certainly unfold- 
ing before us in these later days. 



CHAPTER IV 

OUR NEW CONTINENT 

A FEW months ago I was present at a 
private house where some sixty people were 
gathered together, by special invitation, to 
hear some extracts read from the Hope 
LetterSy as they have been called, adopting 
my name for them in my last book — Do the 
Dead Depart. These messages, as many of 
my readers will know (I trust that they 
may be made public in extenso before my 
own book appears), were given to a mother 
who had lost her young son, a Tunbridge 
schoolboy, and who was distracted with 
grief until this means of communication 
had been opened up between them. 

When these few extracts were read out at 
the meeting to which I have referred, and 
when our host asked us in turn to give our 
various opinions upon the subject, I was 
greatly interested and somewhat amused by 
the contradictory nature of the latter. 
Some people seemed to think the little boy 
of twelve ought to have spoken from the 
other sphere to his mother as a philosopher 

47 



48 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

of sixty years of age — others regretted the 
absence of any marked religious tone in the 
child's communications — many were evi- 
dently shocked by the triviality and abso- 
lute naturalness of the boy's words. Most 
of them seemed almost incapable of seeing 
matters from the standpoint of the child 
and the mother, and I think many in their 
secret hearts wondered why they should 
have been asked to come and listen to such 
childish remarks. 

It appeared to me that the greater number 
of those who spoke later (with one or two 
marked exceptions) entirely missed the 
point of the whole subject. 

We were not invited to listen to a feat of 
mental gymnastics from the next sphere ; 
to a sort of Mischa Elman or Franz von 
Vecsey performance, wonderful and beauti- 
ful as these youthful geniuses undoubtedly 
have proved themselves. 

We were asked to listen to some extracts 
from the messages of a very human, loving, 
simple-minded little boy, who had gone 
^* from this room into the next," and had 
found himself able to cheer and comfort 
his mother by talking to her in his old, 
loving, natural manner. 

The child did not write these '' talks " 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 49 

with an eye firmly fixed upon the public 
and their possible prejudices and likes and 
dislikes, although he certainly appears to 
be quite boyishly delighted by the idea that 
^' his book," as he calls it, is really going to 
be printed I 

I think Mrs. Hope is making a truly 
heroic sacrifice of her feelings in giving 
these records to the world — I know as a fact 
that it has been a most bitter experience to 
her, a sacrifice which she makes only in the 
interests of other bereaved mothers. I can 
hardly believe that the most ribald or super- 
ficial reviewer will betray such generosity as 
she has shown by trampling coarsely or 
carelessly on the ground sacred to mother 
and child. Those who are not interested 
can leave the book alone. They owe it — 
and her — at least the grace of silence. 

The charm of these records lies in their 
spontaneity, their absolute simplicity and 
the compelling sense of reality which they 
will bring to many minds — others, no 
doubt, will disapprove of them on account 
of these very qualities. It is surely some- 
what remarkable that so many messages 
from the other side — almost, in fact, with- 
out exception — are evidently descriptive of 
similar states rather than localities, and 



50 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

that the testimony should be so unwavering 
and comparatively identical, whether it 
comes from a child of Gordon Hope's tender 
years, from a young man such as Judge 
Forbes^ son, or from a man of middle age, 
such as Richard Hodgson? The essential 
facts related of the next sphere are the same, 
in these and in numberless other instances. 
When America was a comparatively un- 
known continent and few travellers visited 
it, a dozen intelligent Englishmen may 
have returned from such rare visits, each 
with a story differing in detail according to 
individual experience, but agreeing as to 
the essential features of climate, customs 
and nationality. 

Yet even here we should expect to find 
considerable differences in their travellers' 
tales. One man may have remained in 
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washing- 
ton and the Eastern States exclusively — an- 
other may have travelled to California and 
brought back wonderful stories of the rising 
townships there and of the wonderful vege- 
tation and the glorious scenery, which 
would sound like fairy tales, even in the ears 
of the Eastern State Americans of that day. 
Another traveller may have spent his time 
on some lonely prairie, and his tale would 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 61 

differ materially from both of the preceding 
ones, and tell mainly a story of loneliness 
and desolation. 

Yet they would all be describing truth- 
fully facts and features not only of the same 
world, but of the same continent. 

Now this is just what we find as regards 
"our new continent." There are vast dif- 
ferences sometimes as regards individual 
experiences, and certainly as regards indi- 
vidual opinions (which seem to differ as 
much there as here), but there is as marked 
a consensus of testimony regarding the es- 
sential facts of the next phase of existence, 
and as to some very distinctive wa3^s in 
which it differs from our present life. 
Naturally, it is the similarity which first 
strikes our travellers over there, and then by 
degrees they realize the points of difference 
as well as the points of contact. 

That which shocks most of the good peo- 
ple on earth seems to be that there should 
be any likeness at all between this life and 
the next one I 

This, of course, is to be accounted for by 
the dead weight of traditional teaching, 
even upon those who consider themselves 
entirely emancipated in thought, and who 
would bitterly resent such a suggestion. 



52 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 
f 

To say that any human being can have 
wholly escaped the results of centuries of 
traditional environment, is as bold as it 
would have been fifty years ago to say that 
a man could get outside and look at him- 
self ! I am obliged to make this limitation 
to my statement, because otherwise occult 
reviewers will remind me that a man can 
get out of his body and look at himself, 
nowadays, quite easily and comfortably. 

But to go back. How can we otherwise 
account for such a general how^l of indigna- 
tion and protest against the idea of houses 
and gardens and rivers and boats and horses 
and cats and dogs in the next sphere ? All 
these are absolutely in line with recent 
scientific ideas of evolution, which seems to 
abhor gaps as much as Nature abhors a 
vacuum. 

From the strictly evolutionary point of 
view, present spiritualistic " facts " are just 
what the scientists ought to expect and to 
anticipate in tabulating any sort of contin- 
uation of life at all. 

A more tenuous form of matter, with the 
inevitable differences entailed by that fact ; 
more extended powers, owing to the in- 
creasing scope of the senses belonging to 
this more ethereal form of body ; greater 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 63 

freedom in range of thought, owing to an 
improved brain apparatus ; greater freedom 
also from many of the vices (such as selfish- 
ness and greed) engendered by the fierce 
competition of material life as we know it 
— all this and much more that might be 
added, is surely just what an intelligent 
scientist, who accepted evolution in the 
past and continuity of life in the future, 
would be bound to arrive at, if he thought 
the matter out carefully? 

Yet when we find (those of us who have 
had reason to accept the evidence) that this 
is just what takes place, so soon as we have 
cast off the outer material body for the in- 
ner material body, every one cries out 
either in horror or in ridicule of the dread- 
ful idea that there can be houses and boats 
and lecture rooms and colleges in the next 
stage of existence. 

It seems blasphemous to some and absurd 
to others, although I cannot understand in 
this case why they should not consider 
their present life either blasphemous or 
absurd ? 

To return for a moment to the meeting 
referred to in my opening sentences. A 
charming and very intelligent theosophical 
lady of my acquaintance was good enough 



64: PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

to suggest with kindly tolerance that al- 
though poor little Gordon's evidently ma- 
terialistic tastes might attract towards him 
ponies and gardens, no doubt more ad- 
vanced and superior people would find " re- 
ligious development " awaiting them, rather 
than cats and horses, etc. 

*' Why should it not be possible over 
there to have religious development and a 
pony ? '' was my apparently frivolous con- 
tribution to the discussion. But the under- 
lying idea was not at all frivolous. I think 
the sooner we get rid of the notion that 
matter in itself and apart from the uses to 
which we may put it is undesirable or un- 
dignified or unspiritual, the better. Prob- 
ably in some form or other we shall have 
to put up with matter (rechristened ether 
or spelled in any other way) for a good many 
seons yet, and it seems rather premature to 
be trying to get rid of it completely, as a 
bar to spiritual development, so early in the 
day! 

There are spiritually-minded men — even 
bishops ! — who use motor-cars for transact- 
ing their spiritual business. Why should 
they not find and make use of etheric and 
sublimated motor-cars in the next sphere 
of their activities ? I trust these latter will 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 55 

have neither smell, noise, nor excessive 
vibration I 

It seems to me not making too little but 
making too much of matter to judge other- 
wise. We may fairly hope that in the next 
stage, and with a more attenuated form of 
matter, we may learn to put it in its proper 
place, as our servant rather than our master, 
which latter is too often the present relation- 
ship between us. 

But to dismiss ponies and horses and 
" such-like," as only worthy of a small boy^s 
fancies, and in direct antithesis to religious 
development, appears to me a little pre- 
mature, and certainly not in line with what 
we know at present about evolution. 

All those inhabitants of " our new conti- 
nent," with whom I have come in contact, 
agree practically as to two or three broad 
distinctions between our present life and the 
one immediately succeeding it. 

Matter there is more malleable, more 
under our control and at our disposition, to 
be manipulated in a way quite impossible 
for us under present normal conditions. 
Probably Oriental occultists (when not 
frauds as well as fakirs) have anticipated 
some of these powers, but I think most of 
us will be wise if we content ourselves with 



56 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

present conditions until we are quite sure 
that our morality has kept pace with our 
mentality — otherwise we shall inevitably 
find (to use a vulgar but expressive Amer- 
icanism) that we have " bitten off more than 
we can chew " with comfort, either to our- 
selves or to our neighbors. 

Another point of agreement is the ex- 
tended and well-nigh creative power of 
Thought. The influence of thought on the 
mental plane is obvious enough here, and 
it has of course an indirect and secondary 
effect upon matter, but in the next sphere 
we are always told that Thought controls 
matter in a direct rather than indirect fashion 
(through hands as well as brains), as is the 
case with us. Howard Forbes, Gordon 
Hope and all those who have spoken to me, 
tell the same story — '' Here you must think 
hard when you want any thing. ^^ '' Thoughts 
are Things/^ is the Christian Science 
formula. ^^ Things are Thoughts ^^ we may 
also say in this respect. Howard Forbes 
used to speak of the home he was preparing 
for his parents, and ask his mother what 
pictures and ornaments she would like to 
find there when she went over : " You see, 
mother J you must think hard when you settle 
what you want — that is how we get things here 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 57 

— we have to think them, and when we think 
hard enough they remain with us.^^ Gordon 
says practically the same thing, again and 
again. The permanence of surroundings 
there seems to be in direct ratio not only to 
our thought, hut to its power of concentration. 

Now concentration is one of the most 
difficult things for most of us to achieve. 
It needs much practice and patience, but it 
is good mental discipline here, and may 
prove of the greatest importance hereafter. 

The difference between arriving in the 
next sphere with some small power of con- 
centration instead of arriving there, as so 
many must do, with their thinking an un- 
trained and chaotic process, may well prove 
to be as the difference between travelling on 
the Continent with some knowledge of the 
languages, and arriving there in helpless 
confusion and dependent upon the first 
good-natured stranger who will take pity 
upon our incapacity and ignorance. 

I have likened the present revolution of 
Thought, not only in Theology but also in 
Science, to that which heralded the Coper- 
nican view of the universe. Is history to 
repeat itself? Are the churches once more 
to be the obscurantists ; to stand between us 
and the sun ? 



58 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

Surely not I Surely they will have learned 
from the bitter experience of the Past, to 
welcome their prophets rather than stone 
them ? Are we to have a repetition of the 
bad old days — the days of Galileo and Gi- 
ordano Bruno — of clerical oppression and 
tyranny, taking God's name in vain and 
sheltering beneath the cloak of misnamed 
reverence, to conceal their real love of 
power and dread of seeing it wane in the 
clearer light of advancing knowledge? 

Let us hope not. It can at least do us 
no harm to be sanguine. Clerical disap- 
proval can no longer light up the faggots, 
but it can, and in many cases will, struggle 
fiercely to shut out the light. 

It has always been so. The prophets and 
the priests have ever been at war. Some- 
times it seems to us in our despair that as 
it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever 
shall be ! 

Is it because the true prophet worships 
Truth, whilst the priest too often worships 
Form f Yet we have amongst us, in the 
English State Church and elsewhere, some 
of those finer spirits who are bold enough 
to stand up and declare the truth as it has 
been revealed to them, in spite of abuse and 
loss of favor and persecution of various 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 59 

kinds. Such men are often accused of be- 
ing mere self-advertisers, and making a 
cheap bid for popularity, although they 
may be making the greatest sacrifices, both 
of time and money, in order to follow 
where their inspiration leads. 

I do not speak of that modern develop- 
ment, the flippant and often agnostic clergy- 
man, who tells you that he is not going to 
put his eyes out with his grandmother's 
knitting-needles — that he is as much a man 
of the world as yourself, and means to 
** have as good a time '' too. 

No — I am speaking of the devoted and 
earnest men who are standing shoulder to 
shoulder in the present crisis — who see, 
whether the}?" be Anglicans or Nonconform- 
ists, that the time has come when it is a 
question of Evolution or Revolution in the 
history of Religion. Few but fervent, and 
fired by a grand enthusiasm, these are the 
men who will save our churches, if they 
can be saved — who will stand between us 
and spiritual anarchy and confusion. 

They represent the " ten righteous men " 
who may yet save the city from destruc- 
tion ! Surely these modern questions of 
extended psychical capacities, with the 
light they throw upon spiritual facts and 



60 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AXD CHRISTIANITY 

methods, should most naturally and rightly 
attract the special attention of those relig- 
ious teachers whose hands would be so 
greatly strengthened by studying them ? 

We have in Telepathy more than a sug- 
gestion of the probable channels used in 
Prayer ; in Clairaudience the verification 
in modern days of the old stories of the 
child Samuel and of the Prophet of the 
Lord ; in the ** passage of matter through 
matter " and the disintegration of matter, a 
marvellous light upon various episodes in 
the life of our Lord ; in " apports " and in 
some of the verified recitals of true Oriental 
phenomena, we see how these spasmodic 
possibilities, only to be achieved now 
through fasting and much ceremonial, were 
the powers belonging to the sphere to which 
our Lord belonged, and were exercised by 
Him in perfectly normal fashion. 

All this and much more has been un- 
folded to us of late years in psychical phe- 
nomena and a better comprehension of 
Eastern lore ; but those who should have 
been the first to open our eyes and bid us 
take heed to these things, have been the 
ones to try and screen us from the dawn of 
a brighter day, by telling us it all comes 
from the devil being let loose upon the 



OUR NEW CONTINENT 61 

world, and that we must resist him tooth 
and nail. 

Now Science, at least, is not going to be 
frightened out of the evolutionary path by 
any such cry of *' wolf,*' or rather of *' roar- 
ing lions ! " She has already started in the 
psychic field, and a daily increasing num- 
ber of her votaries are already equipping 
themselves for an intelligent investigation 
of the claims put forward. 

No intelligent man without preconcep- 
tions, in fact with a " mind to let," has 
ever yet given time and talents to the re- 
search without eventually admitting the 
facts (whatever may be his interpretation 
of them). 

Therefore we are now within measurable 
distance of the day when Science will be in 
the van as regards giving a welcome to these 
twentieth-century facts. 

Are our spiritual pastors and masters con- 
tent to lag behind as usual, until they are 
forced to step along, by pressure from the 
crowd behind them ? 

Is that a dignified mode of progression? 



CHAPTER V 

SCIENCE AND EELIGION 

It has sometimes struck me that a really 
romantic and fascinating chapter might be 
written, by some one wielding a golden 
pen, on the relations between Religion and 
Science — as they are — as they were — and as 
they will be again. 

I say Religion and Science advisedly, 
because of course Religion must come first 
— man must have had some conception of a 
Divine or Superior Being before beginning 
to have any curiosity about His Laws or 
Ways of treating him. The first dim con- 
ceptions of a Power to be propitiated by gifts 
or sacrifices must have been succeeded by the 
instinct of worship ; founded on gratitude 
for some relief or indulgence, in supposed 
answer to propitiatory ceremonies of the 
rudest and most barbarous kind. Then in 
the succeeding ages when Fear and Propitia- 
tion were succeeded by curiosity and in- 
vestigation, the first feeble cry of the child 
" Science '^ was heard. It came with the 
wish to know why something happened, as 

62 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION 63 

well as to find the best means of protection, 
if the something happening chanced to be 
unpleasant. So that we must look upon 
the scientific instinct as the offspring of the 
religious instinct, and not as its parent, and 
I think the relationship between the two 
has been just that of many fathers to many 
sons. 

Some months ago we were all reading 
with delight that fascinating book by Mr. 
Edmond Gosse, entitled Father and Son : A 
Study of Two Temperaments. There we have 
the relationship to which I refer, indicated 
under the most favorable circumstances, 
because there was evidently great affection 
though little affinity between the two. In 
the years of childhood very little friction 
occurred, because the child was naturally 
under the dominion of the parental rule, 
and although possessing both originality 
and independence of thought in a marked 
degree, he was evidently content for some 
years to be the " Infant Phenomenon " along 
the lines of his environment. It was only 
later, when the boy realized the essential 
narrowness of his father^s outlook upon life 
as compared with his own, that the real 
mental antagonism set in and the divergence 
of the paths took place, which was to land 



U PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

them later such v/orlds apart in everything 
save mutual affection and respect. 

It is only as I write this last sentence 
that my analogy alas ! breaks down after 
the usual fashion ; for I fear we cannot say 
that the extreme divergences of opinion 
between Religion and Science have been 
accompanied by any marked affection be- 
tween the two, or even by any great amount 
of mutual esteem. But the earlier lines of 
description make a very fair comparison 
between the real father and son and the 
father and son of my parable. 

There was a time when Science and Re- 
ligion must have jogged along quite com- 
fortably together ; in fact when Religion, 
like the elder Mr. Gosse, must have been 
quite proud of its clever child, so eager to 
learn and so quick to assimilate. In those 
early days there could have been no ques- 
tion of friction or separation between the 
two ; for the Churches had too strong a grip 
upon the feebler hands of their children. 

But the child ^' Science " grew up — -just 
as other children do, and then came friction, 
as is almost inevitably the case when the 
younger generation begins to realize other 
standards than the parental one, and to 
think and weigh and decide for itself. And 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION 65 

SO by the fifteenth century, Science had 
come of age and began to assert its rights 
and its individuality. Unfortunately, the 
parent against whose decrees it rebelled was 
far more stern and inexorable and pig- 
headed than the father depicted in the 
autobiography of modern days. 

"No individual judgment allowed here I 
Out of my house you go, if you question a 
single word that I say ! We will imprison 
you for your souls' good, and exorcise you 
with bell, book and candle, but we will 
have no scandals in this house. It is like 
your youthful impudence to think you 
know better than your parents ! — that your 
wonderful discoveries give their instructions 
the lie ! Whatever is true is known already 
by Us, and can be read in this book. There- 
fore what you think you have discovered is 
not true. That is absolutely logical, and 
if you ask me to look down your telescope, 
I tell you I won't, because I should only 
find a blasphemous lie at the other end of 
it." 

This was the form of reasoning, and it 
was very effectual for a time, because the 
ecclesiastical authority was top in those 
days, and every one else nowhere. 

We have reversed all that in the last four 



66 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

hundred years. Science has come into its 
rights and privileges of Manhood ; and has 
no longer anything to fear from the thunders 
of the Church. 

The positions in fact are reversed, for the 
Churches have acted as though they had 
good cause to fear the result of the researches 
they condemned. Is it to be wondered at 
that Science should feel not only a tolerant 
contempt for the present ecclesiastical atti- 
tude towards scientific men, but also some 
bitterness, engendered no doubt by a latent 
memory of the persecutions which their 
forerunners endured at the hands of these 
clerical tyrants? This is just what might 
be expected. 

A quasi-scientific attitude is common 
enough in the modern pulpit it is true, but 
scientific men listen (if at all) with the 
amused contempt of the professional expert 
when an amateur poaches on his ground ; 
and also probably say to themselves : '' That 
is all very well, my good friends ! you are 
civil enough to us now, because you daren't 
be anything else, but you would like to put 
a spoke into the wheels of Science if you 
could, and if you and your brother clerics 
were not in danger of being so hopelessly 
left behind I " 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION 67 

But I believe brighter days are coming ; 
days when, without unworthy capitulation 
on either side, Religion and Science will 
once more be in harmony and accord, not 
because one has all the power and the other 
all the knowledge, as in past days ; but be- 
cause both have come to realize that the 
ancient antagonism between them originated 
in human misconceptions, and that their 
real affinity rests upon the impregnable 
Rock of Truth. 

I think we all owe a very deep debt of 
gratitude to Sir Oliver Lodge for the great 
work he has been doing in this direction. 
He has come to us as a reconciler, not by 
unworthy capitulation as to his own position 
as a Scientist ; not by any futile attempt to 
exaggerate facts or to minimize them with 
the object of finding some possible junction ; 
but by the much worthier and more suc- 
cessful method of showing to Science on the 
one hand, and to Religion on the other, the 
Spirit of essential Truth and Unity which 
must underlie both departments of human 
knowledge, and without which, neither 
could have survived the corruptions of 
Time and of Error. If there is not some 
spark of Life, corruption must set in and 
destroy the human frame. The same truth 



68 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

holds good of the various departments of 
human knowledge. If a system of thought 
or action survive, it is thanks to that spark 
of life at the centre, and not to the corro- 
ding accretions of error which are bound to 
be manifested in the circumference. 

Given two men who have been living in 
constant antagonism, through misconcep- 
tions and bitterness, perhaps of years, but 
each of whom has some sterling qualities — 
some real desire at heart to be an honest 
and just citizen, and even some underlying 
affinity with his enemy. A wise man who 
sees this comes and says to each sepa- 
rately, — 

" You two, who are wasting strength in 
bitterness and antagonism, are really one at 
heart, and you could do splendid work 
together — far more than double what either 
of you can achieve alone ; your true destiny 
and your greatest wisdom is to combine 
forces, for you are really essential to each 
other in working out your aims. This mis- 
understanding and bitterness between you 
is only a hard shell that has formed on the 
surface and which hides your true natures 
from each other — natures which have in 
reality so much in common. Let me help 
you to get rid of these misconceptions, and 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION 69 

then you will both see things from a new 
and true standpoint.'* 

This is just the work that Sir Oliver Lodge 
appears to be doing, and doing so admirably. 
Only a layman and a Scientist coidd do it, 
for a clerical reconciler would be met by the 
inevitable sneer from the ordinary man of 
the world, that in the first place he was no 
scientist, and in the next place that it was 
obviously a part of his profession to preach 
peace and good-will all round ; and shut his 
eyes to facts. 

Now this reproach cannot be brought 
against Sir Oliver Lodge, who is an emi- 
nently practical man of Science. 

" The letter killeth — the spirit maketh 
alive.'* The letter divides — the spirit unites. 
This is the " Spirit of Truth " which we are 
being taught to search for, as underlying 
the surface incrustations caused by error or 
intolerance on either side. 

We are daily recognizing in greater de- 
gree the essential unity between Religion 
and Science. Their aim is one — the finding 
of Truth. Even their methods are identical, 
for if the Christian or Buddhist needs faith, 
so also does the Scientist. If the Spiritual- 
ist dream dreams and have visions, so does 
the Scientist who is going to do any origi- 



70 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

nal work, and not merely plod along the 
road that others have pioneered. No great 
discoveries in Science could have been made 
without scientific intuition or /air, if people 
prefer that word. The discoverer is the man 
who argues from the known to the unknown, 
and to whom flashes of real inspiration come 
from time to time. What matter if they 
seem to him to come " out of the blue " and 
without rhyme or reason ? They come, 
and he acts upon them, and Humanity is 
the richer for that fact. 

Then again the enthusiasm and endur- 
ance which inspire the religious martyr, in- 
spire also the scientific martyr. When men 
sacrifice life and health in the pursuit of their 
researches, as is being done every day un- 
der our very eyes, what is their motive ? 

" Love for Humanity " people say glibly, 
but this does not cover the facts. Some- 
times these men have never shown any 
special or extraordinary love for Humanity, 
but they must have an all-absorbing and 
dauntless love of Truth, and think no toil 
too great, no bodily pains too agonizing, if 
only they may catch a glimpse of that ra- 
diant presence. It may be the truth in X- 
rays or in radium, or in some chemical com- 
bination, or in any phenomena of Nature. 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION 71 

It matters little what the special goal of 
each man may be — it is the search for Truth 
which is so all-absorbing, so relentless and 
so monopolizing. And whether it be the 
devout Christian or the enthusiastic Scien- 
tist, the aim is the same for each in his dif- 
fering area of thought ; the methods de- 
manded are similar, and so are the sacrifices 
entailed on the physical plane. 

Can we doubt that the rewards also of 
this single-minded service will be to each 
man according to his faith and to his powers 
of appreciation ? 

Since writing this, I have been reading 
Edouard Schur^'s interesting book, Les 
grands InitieSf and am tempted to translate 
the following lines from his introduction : — 

"Science and Religion — those guardians 
of civilization — have equally lost their 
supreme and magical gift — that of a 
great and powerful teaching. 

"The Temples of India and of Egypt 
produced the greatest sages upon earth. 

"The Greek Temples have moulded 
heroes and poets. 

" The apostles of Christ were amongst the 
most sublime of martyrs, and thus have 
begotten thousands of others. 



72 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

"The Church of the Middle Ages, in 
spite of its primitive theology, made 
saints and knights, because she had 
faith and felt the Spirit of the Christ 
vibrating within her. 
"To-day, neither the Church, bound 
within the limits of her dogma, nor 
Science, imprisoned in matter, knows 
how to produce the most perfect type 
of man. 
" The art of creating and guiding the Soul 
has been lost, and will never be found 
again, until Science and Religion, re- 
melted into a living Force, apply them- 
selves to the work together and with 
one accord ; for the good and for the 
salvation of mankind. 
" For this, Science will not need to change 
her methods, but to extend her domin- 
ion ; nor need Christianity part with 
her traditions, but rather study to un- 
derstand their origin, their spirit and 
their scope." 
These are very suggestive words, and 
seemed to me curiously appropriate to my 
own train of thought, which I have en- 
deavored feebly to indicate in the pres- 
ent chapter. Mons. Schure goes on to 
say :— 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION Y3 

**This time of intellectual regeneration 
and of social transformation is bound 
to come — we may be sure. Already 
certain signs are announcing it. 
When Science knows, Religion will 
be strengthened, and man will act 
with renewed energy. The art of Life 
and all other arts can only be reborn 
through such a union. 

" But, meanwhile, what can be done dur- 
ing these last years of a century which 
resembles a descent into an abyss in 
threatening twilight, although its be- 
ginning appeared as the ascent to the 
mountain tops, under a brilliant dawn ? 

" A great philosopher has defined Faith 
as the courage of the Spirit, which 
rushes forward, certain of finding Truth. 
Such Faith is not the enemy of reason, 
but is, on the contrary, its torch. It 
is the faith of Christopher Columbus — 
the Faith of Galileo, which demands 
proof upon proof, and it is the only 
Faith possible for us to-day. 

** For those who have irrevocably lost 
their power of Faith — and they are 
numerous (for the example has come 
in high places, and the road is easy 
and well beaten) — it only remains to 



H PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

float with the current of the day, to 
submit to the times instead of fighting 
them, to resign themselves to doubt 
and negation, to console themselves for 
all human misery and for future catas- 
trophes by a disdainful smile, whilst 
disguising the profound emptiness in 
which alone they believe, by a brilliant 
veil, decoratedwith the beautiful name 
of Ideal ; although they consider this 
latter only in the light of a useful 
fantasy. 
** As for us, who believe that the Ideal is 
the only reality and the only truth, in 
the midst of a passing and changing 
world ; who believe in the sanction 
and in the accomplishment of its prom- 
ises in the history of Humanity, as 
well as in a future life — who know 
that this sanction is necessary, and 
that it is the recompense of the Hu- 
man Brotherhood as well as the mean- 
ing of the universe and the logic of 
God — for those of us who have these 
convictions, only one course is possible. 
Let us affirm this truth as boldly and 
as loudly as we can ! Let us throw 
ourselves with her and for her, into 
the arena of action, and above the 



SCIENCE AND RELIGION T5 

crowds and confusion, let us endeavor 
to penetrate through meditation and 
individual initiation, into the temple 
of immutable Ideas, in order that we 
may arm ourselves with the principles 
that will endure. This is what I have 
attempted in this book, trusting that 
others will follow me and do better." 

Here the quotation ends, and I cannot 
*^ do better " than close the present chapter 
with a sincere echo of Mons. Schure's last 
words. 



CHAPTER VI 

A SUMMARY 

In summing up this last chapter of the 
first part of my book, I think it is well to 
remind my readers that we have Biblical 
authority for no longer attempting to pour 
new wine into old bottles, nor to piece old 
garments with new stuff. Both these 
feats have been attempted hitherto in ec- 
clesiastico-scientific matters — from the ec- 
clesiastical side. It has been perhaps in- 
evitable that it should have been so, but 
the new wine is already bursting the old 
bottles, and explosions are better avoided 
if possible. My clerical readers will doubt- 
less wish here to remind me that I have 
omitted to quote the verse immediately fol- 
lowing those above ; where our Lord says, 
" No man also having drunk old ivine straight- 
way desireth new, for he saith, the old is better.** 

But that exactly describes what many 
men are saying nowadays as regards old 
and new doctrines — " The old are better. We 
are accustomed to the good, old, heavy port and 

76 



A SUMMARY 77 

matured brown sherry — what do we want with 
these raw J immature^ young wines f Away 
with them ! " 

Men mistrust the New Theology, as it is 
barbarously christened. They talk of " new 
fashions in religion," and say — very truly — 
that this is a time of fads and fancies, both 
as regards spiritual and material diet. So 
it is, but why ? 

Simply because this is a time of progress, 
of readj ustment of old ideas in both de- 
partments. We are all experimenting to 
some extent in order to find the best phys- 
ical fare, because the world is arriving at 
the very wholesome conclusion that we 
have most of us eaten a great deal more food 
than we needed in the past, and a great deal 
of indigestible food into the bargain. Natu- 
rally, the pendulum swings a little to the 
other extreme at first, and some get ill from 
insufficient or badly-chosen nourishment. 

What suits one does not suit another. 
Yet we clamor incessantly for uniformity 
in our dining-rooms as well as in our 
churches ! ^^ If it suits me to eat no meat at 
all and live on vegetables, then it must also suit 
my neighbor J and his health would be as good 
o-s mine if he were not too obstinate to change 
his diety Another man thinks the vege- 



TS PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

tariaii equally mistaken in his ideas, and 
boldly declares that in fruit and nuts alone, 
lies the true way of physical salvation. In 
fact, I think the latter would go a little 
further and say that the effects could not 
be limited by the physical, as the '' fruit- 
and-nut " disciple would be in a much more 
receptive mood for spiritual teaching and 
experience ! 

It is the same in theology. Here, also, it 
is a time of fads and fancies no doubt, but 
why ? For the same reason. Because the 
wholesome idea is permeating the world 
that we have consumed too much theological 
dogma, and that a good deal of it has not been 
nourishing to us at all, but has brought on 
at last a fit of very undeniable indigestion. 
Many of us are trying to experiment here 
and there in order to find the spiritual 
nourishment that is best suited to us. When 
we think we have found it, we are too often 
intolerant of those who differ from us, and 
who choose a spiritual diet which is not the 
same as our own. We make no allowance 
for differences of age, of temperament, of 
surroundings. We do not realize that all 
are at varying stages in spiritual as in phys- 
ical evolution, and that one man's meat is 
truly another man's poison. 



A SUMMARY Id 

Surely this latter truth has been once for 
all revealed to us in Swedenborg's teaching, 
where he describes the varying effects of the 
same Divine Fire on various temperaments? 
The simple prayer of a little child and the 
ecstasy of a Santa Theresa are at very dififer- 
ent points in spiritual evolution ; yet they 
spring from the same divine source acting 
upon different ages, different temperaments 
and certainly different stages in develop- 
ment. 

We are often reminded of the mental rest- 
lessness and absence of peace in the present 
day, and sometimes we are bidden to note 
how different it is in the Roman Catholic 
Church. How united in the faith all the 
worshippers are, therCj compared with the 
members of our own church, rushing hither 
and thither to hear some new preacher, and 
yet finding no rest to their souls in spite of 
all their efforts I This is perfectly true and 
must necessarily be true. The Pope gains 
uniformity of belief at the cost of individu- 
ality in growth ; but even here the uni- 
formity must sometimes be only in the outer 
manifestation, and not in the inner heart. 
No artificial act of faith in the tenets of any 
church upon earth can always and forever 
** put back the clock " of human develop- 



80 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

ment, through all time and through all 
eras of increasing revelation. 

Many are happy in the spiritual atmos- 
phere of the Roman Catholic Church — oth- 
ers are wearied of the clash of opinion and 
the problems to which neither their hearts 
nor their intellects seem to have any answer, 
and they are thankful for any refuge where 
they can remain in peace ; until that terri- 
ble Soul of ours wakes them up again to fight 
their individual battle and to beat out their 
own music. That may never happen on 
this present sphere of life, and no one 
can grudge them their temporary repose. 
Lastly, come the numbers of excellent men 
and women who have been born into the 
Church of Rome and hope to die in the 
odor of '' Catholic sanctity," and have never 
been troubled by doubts or perplexities as 
regards their spiritual welfare. The fact is, 
that behind all creeds, all languages, all 
forms of worship, lies the blessed fact of 
spiritual communion with the source of our 
being — the Lord and Giver of all life. 

Those of us who know what that means, 
may be tossed hither and thither on the 
waves of this troublesome world, and in 
proportion to our intellectual development 
and according to our temperament will the 



A SUMMARY 81 

surface of the waters of life be sometimes 
troubled and perturbed. But in such case 
our Sheet-anchor can never fail, nor can we 
really remain for any length of time obliv- 
ious to this fact. He or she who has once 
experienced that personal touch between 
the Soul and its Source, can never wholly 
lose it ; even though clouds may, and often 
must, obscure the sun for a time. It de- 
pends upon no special church nor special 
creed, although we may identify it with 
such, at certain stages in our spiritual 
growth. But some day we shall know that 
in the free-masonry of these experiences 
there are no labels and no limits. The 
secret but unmistakable sign may come to 
us from a Mahomedan sitting in the midst 
of his disciples in an Arab mosque (as hap- 
pened to me once in Algeria) ; in some poor 
cottage in England or Ireland ; from a priest 
in the churches of Assisi ; from an extreme 
Ritualist, or a devout Roman Catholic, or a 
convinced Evangelical, or in any other sur- 
roundings. The fact that most of these 
might consider their personal experiences 
identical with their personal beliefs, does 
not affect the question. The spiritual 
masonic sign ma}' be unconsciously given 
where we should least expect it, and be un- 



82 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

mistakably absent when we might most 
reasonably look for it. 

Perhaps the true mystic alone will be 
willing to admit the truth of these words ; 
to him it will be simply obvious. 

But here we are outside the limits of 
theology and in the boundless kingdom of 
the Eternal Father, in whom we live and 
move and have our being. 

To return to theology. 

I have already spoken of the Roman 
Catholic atmosphere as being so satisfying 
to many, and I must at once admit that the 
many include myself. Often in passing the 
Brompton Oratory, or when near the West- 
minster Cathedral, I go in and sit there — 
just to saturate myself with this atmosphere. 
One finds it, thank God, in our own 
churches, but, I must confess, less often. I 
have vainly tried to find a reason for this 
that is entirely satisfying, but am unable to 
do so. There are many Roman Catholic 
churches where this spiritual atmosphere 
is markedly absent, but when present, it 
seems to be so in a very astonishing degree. 

I suppose people must be to some extent 
" sensitives '' in order to realize just what 
is meant by a spiritual atmosphere clinging 
to a church or a cathedral ? I think I never 



A SUMMARY 83 

felt it more strongly than in the " Porziun- 
cula " at the Church of Santa Maria degli 
Angelij in the outskirts of Assisi. The 
place I especially wished to visit in that 
church was the altar raised over the spot 
where Saint Francis and Santa Chiara par- 
took of their historical meal together. That 
story seems to me always of so beautiful 
and sacramental a nature, that I had ex- 
pected to find the spot where it had taken 
place full of the most wonderful and mystic 
influences. For me, at least, it was not so. 
Against all theories of subconscious ex- 
pectation raising strange images, and so 
forth, I experienced absolutely nothing ; 
to my great disappointment as well as sur- 
prise. 

I had already looked into the chapel of 
the Porziuncula in passing through, with a 
very unsympathetic priest ; and had merely 
remarked to myself how bare and uninter- 
esting it looked. Being left to my own 
devices later, and after the visit to the altar 
already mentioned, I returned for a last 
glance at the " Porziuncula '^ before leav- 
ing the church to resume my journey to 
Assisi ; and here a great surprise awaited 
me. 

Kneeling down on one of the relentless- 



84 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

looking wooden benches to say a short 
prayer before leaving the church, as is my 
usual practice in foreign churches, to my 
astonishment I became at once conscious 
of this remarkable *^ spiritual atmosphere," 
for I can call it by no other name. Wave 
after wave seemed to pass over me. With 
no conscious effort on my own part, my 
whole being seemed to be bathed in this 
divine element. Prayer appeared all too 
cold and mechanical ; in fact one's soul 
seemed to be wafted into spheres where 
earth language was no longer necessary or 
possible, and where the spiritual communion 
took place through other channels than 
speech ; " uttered or unexpressed." 

It was only afterwards that I learned that 
my visit was paid the very day after sixty 
thousand pilgrims had been praying in that 
very spot. Certainly the prayer of faith had 
left a wonderful impression on those bare, 
wooden benches and plain, rough walls I 

The only church which I can compare 
with the " Porziuncula " in this respect, is 
a small military chapel on the very highest 
point of Fort Nazionale in Algeria, certainly 
the last spot where one would naturally 
have expected to find such spiritual condi- 
tions ! I only went there once, and am not 



A SUMMARY 85 

aware that any special function had taken 
place in it at the time of my visit. 

This last paragraph leads us back to the 
psychic aspect, with which I wish to end 
this chapter. 

At the very moment of writing these 
words a letter has been handed to me from 
a clergyman of the Church of England, ad- 
dressing me from New Zealand on the sub- 
ject of my two last books, Seen and Unseen^ 
and Do the Dead Depart 

He says, " I have recommended them, to- 
gether with Stead's After Deaths to many 
anxious enquirers. I often wonder whether 
to envy people with these psychic gifts or not. 
On the one hand, it must be very delight- 
ful to be able to give help in the way that 
you can ; but, on the other hand, many of 
your experiences seem a little creepy, and I 
would rather be without them. But I sup- 
pose we cannot have the pleasures of any 
gifts without the pains ? 

" I do hope you will give us some more 
books like these two. They really help one 
very much. I think the Church ought to 
establish the sort of bureau that * Julia ' de- 
mands in After Deaths and guard it very 
carefully from irreverence or profanity." 



86 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

Now this last remarkable suggestion 
comes, be it noted, from the vicar of one of 
the most important cities in New Zealand. 
Nothing could have strengthened my hands 
so much in making the impassioned appeal 
I should like to make, more especially to all 
other clergymen of my own church — the 
dear old Church of England. There are 
evidently some men within its orders who 
can judge of these things in a sane and rev- 
erent spirit — who feel that no truth can ever 
be endangered by any other truth — who real- 
ize the enormous engine for good that these 
newly-discovered and emerging facts and 
capacities may be, when reverently used, 
with discretion and courage. 

Why should the number of such men be 
so lamentably small at present? 

Why should not all clergymen and re- 
ligious preachers, who are capable of taking 
an intelligent interest in scientific research 
and who have the interests of their congre- 
gations at heart, say to themselves : — 

" These subjects are no longer merely the 
playground of the weak-minded or the dis- 
honest. They are being investigated by a 
certain and ever-increasing number of scien- 
tific men all over the world, and those who 
investigate long enough are always con- 



A SUMMARY 87 

vinced in the end that the supernormal is 
no myth, and is really in our very midst at 
the present moment. 

** These modern facts throw a searchlight 
upon old traditions and superstitions that is 
almost blinding in its intensity, but illumi- 
nating in its suggestion. Surely it is for uSy 
as guardians of religion, to investigate these 
abnormal occurrences vouched for by scien- 
tists of known reputation and probity ? It 
is for us to experiment. It is for us to en- 
courage the use of God^s last gift to us, in 
stemming the rising tide of overwhelming 
materiality. It is for us to learn also the 
best means of avoiding the abuse of His 
gift, and of teaching the members of our 
flocks to keep a level head and a pure con- 
science ; to avoid mere idle curiosity and to 
cultivate a reverent and grateful attitude 
towards this as towards every other branch 
of knowledge. If we miss our opportunity 
it will not return, and then when those who 
trusted to us learn that their trust has 
been betrayed, through our culpable negli- 
gence or inveterate prejudice, they will have 
found other teachers who may not be nearly 
such safe guides for them.*' 

As the French abbS of whom I speak in 
Seen and Unseen said to his brother-priests in 



88 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

Paris: *^ La lumi^re est venue j mes freres — et 
si vous ne la suivez pas, vous serez laisses seuls 
dans vos iglises.^' 

The parting of the ways was bound to 
come, so soon as Science had been per- 
suaded, at long, long last, to look seriously 
into the facts. 

Through my heredity — through the pure 
and beautiful memory of my own dear 
father — I have a special feeling of respect 
and affection towards clergymen of the 
Church of England. 

How will they elect to act at this critical 
juncture? Along the path of Evolution 
they are bound to walk in time, but shall 
it be as unwilling and carping critics, or as 
free men going forward with joy and thank- 
fulness to welcome this new proof of a 
father's love ? 

It is for them to decide. 

Some years ago an old friend of mine 
died, who had been for many years chaplain 
at a Foreign Embassy, where he had a con- 
gregation who believed in him absolutely, 
and were entirely devoted to him. The 
foreign country to which I refer was rather 
off the ordinary track of tourists, but in 
time modern spiritualism penetrated even 
there, and the English residents appealed 



A SUMMARY 89 

to their beloved minister to preach against 
this poisonous and wicked development of 
modern times, which, of course, could only 
emanate from the devil I My friend was a 
clever man and also a courageous one. In 
spite of a very defined creed, he thought 
for himself on a good many subjects, and 
kept his judgment in suspense. So he told 
them that he really could not "preach 
against'* a subject upon which he was en- 
tirely ignorant, but that if they liked to 
trust him, he would investigate it. 

So he did, with the result that he became 
convinced of abnormal facts and powers, 
but in those days Science had not taken up 
the matter, nor had the startling occur- 
rences of later years taken place. So my 
friend left the subject as he found it ; but 
remained convinced that some of the facta 
he had come across in his rather exhaustive 
investigation could not possibly be ex- 
plained by any normal or known laws. 

Now this seems to me the right spirit in 
which to meet the present crisis. " Always 
investigate before you denounce^''^ and then 
perhaps you will find more to encourage 
than to denounce, and your denunciations 
or warnings will at least have double sig- 
nificance. But there are different ways of 



90 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

investigating. A man who, without being 
a professional Scientist, has written a good 
deal upon scientific subjects, and whose 
name (if I felt at liberty to give it) would 
be known to all my readers, tells us in one 
of his best-known volumes that he has 
made a complete and exhaustive examina- 
tion of the claims of modern spiritualism, 
and that he is in a position to assure the 
world that there is absolutely nothing hut 
fraud and imposture in the whole movement 

I have heard this gentleman's statement 
(which I am sure he made in all good faith) 
quoted again and again, as settling the mat- 
ter once for all. A near relation of my own 
told me once that it was extremely con- 
ceited of me to suppose for one moment 
that I could know better than a man of this 
calibre, who had given time and trouble to 
the investigation. 

Now it so happened, by curious coinci- 
dence, that I was able on the spot to tell 
my relative the exact scope and amount of 
the investigation in question. One of this 
gentleman's daughters happens to be an old 
and intimate friend of mine, and I had the 
account from her. It was, in fact, only at 
her instigation and by her urgent request 
that her father was unwillingly induced to 



A SUMMARY 91 

visit a clairvoyant of her choosing. This 
was what took place : The moment he en- 
tered the room he said to the clairvoyant 
(a woman), *' Now tell me at once the name 
of the ship in which I went to India (or 
Australia) twelve years ago, and then per- 
haps I shall think it worth while going 
further. You canH know that^ so here^s your 
chance." The poor woman was naturally 
rather perturbed by this sudden and mas- 
terful attack, and pleaded for a little time 
to get into harmonious conditions, etc. 

" Ah ! the usual humbug. Harmonious 
conditions means trying to fish it out of me 
unawares " (or words to that effect). " Now, 
then, I give you one more chance. It is a 
simple enough question, and if you really 
have these wonderful powers, there can be 
no diflSculty in answering it. What was 
the name of the ship I sailed in for Aus- 
tralia, twelve years ago ? " 

Of course the test failed. How could it 
be otherwise, considering what we now 
know of necessary mental conditions ? He 
might as well have thrown a heavy stone 
into a pond and have said, " Now, if there 
are no ripples, I will believe that is water — 
not otherwise ! " 

The poor medium tried to get him his 



92 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

test, but in vain. He lost patience at once 
and jumped up. *' Come along, Marian, out 
we go ! I knew it was all humbug when 
it came to any real test.*' 

This is the type of investigation upon 
which in the old days we were expected to 
found our judgments — ^' Nous avons changi 
tout cela,^* 

As a proof of the saner and more tolerant 
days that are coming, I may quote a little 
personal experience of only a few weeks 
ago, which makes a good pendant to the 
letter of my New Zealand vicar — more es- 
pecially as it occurred within the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

A cousin of mine, the other day, left a 
card at my rooms in London, asking me to 
lunch with her next day. I found this was 
in order that she might invite a trained 
nurse, who had accompanied her and her 
little son to Las Palmas in the preceding 
spring, to meet me. This nurse, whom I 
will call Miss Bird, had expressed a great 
wish to see me after reading Do the Dead 
Depart, My cousin mentioned the fact 
that she was a Roman Catholic. " Then 
how is she allowed to read such a book f '' was 
my natural comment. 

" I really donH quite JcnoiVf but I believe her 



A SUMMARY 93 

priest Icneiu all about it^^ was the answer. 
At the moment Miss Bird was announced, 
and came into the drawing-room with my 
book in her hands, intending possibly to ask 
me some questions about it. 

In the few minutes before going down to 
luncheon, I told her that I was specially 
interested to hear that she belonged to the 
Roman Catholic Church, and yet had not 
been forbidden to read my book. 

" Forbidden ! " she said in surprise. " On 
the contrary, it was my priest who gave me 
your book, and told me to read it, and he is 
going to give me Seen and Unseen later. He 
has been my best friend and guide for many 
years. He knows that I have these capac- 
ities myself and am bound to develop on 
these lines, and he said he wished me to read 
the most sane and wholesome literature on 
the subject." 

Now — putting the personal note in this 
entirely aside — I do think we have here two 
very cheering episodes, both happening 
within a month of each other, and coming 
from widely differing ecclesiastical camps. 
It gives us courage to hope that the ten 
righteous men will be found within the city 
after all, and that their influence will per- 
meate in time both the great Anglo- 



94 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

Catholic and Roman Catholic centres. So 
may it be 1 

1 cannot do better than close this portion 
of my book with the wise and pertinent 
remarks of Dr. Phillips Brooks, late Bishop 
of Massachusetts, than whom it would be 
difficult to find a nobler character or a 
greater man. 

He says, " Certainly there is nothing 
clearer or more striking in the Bible than 
the calm, familiar way with which from 
end to end it assumes the present existence 
of a world of spiritual beings always close to 
and acting on this world of flesh and blood. 
It does not belong to any one part of the 
Bible. It runs through the whole vast 
range. From creation to judgment, the 
spiritual beings are forever present. They 
act as truly in the drama as the men and 
women who, with their unmistakable 
humanity, walk the sacred stage in the 
successive scenes. There is nothing of 
hesitation about the Bible's treatment of the 
spiritual world. There is no reserve, no 
vagueness which would leave a chance for 
the whole system to be explained away into 
dreams and metaphors. The spiritual 
world, with all its multitudinous existence, 
is just as real as the crowded cities and the 



A SUMMARY 95 

fragrant fields and the loud battle-grounds 
of the visible and palpable Judsea, in which 
the writers of the sacred books were living. '^ 
— Dr. Phillips Brooks. 



PART II 
CHAPTER VII 

SPIRITUALISM — ITS USE AND ABUSE 

I HAVE divided this book into two parts : 
the first dealing in a brief and cursory 
manner with the results of psychical re- 
search as they affect modern Theology and 
modern Science ; the second dealing more 
exclusively with the same subjects on their 
intrinsic merits. 

Every one knows the story of the old 
woman ^^ who found such comfort in that 
blessed word Mesopotamia." Now I am 
sure, to many of my readers and probably 
to most of my critics, the word '' Spirit- 
ualism " will bring not comfort and bless- 
ing, but hatred, boredom, and gnashing of 
teeth! There are several obvious reasons 
why this should be so. To begin with, we 
have all inherited from our savage fore- 
fathers a feeling of enmity and hatred to- 
wards the unknown, the stranger, and the 
foreigner. Probably this instinct was their 

96 



SPIRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 97 

salvation in the earlier and ruder develop- 
ments of Humanity — events must so often 
have justified their rooted suspicion of 
strangers and strange events ; especially 
before the social instincts had had time to 
develop. 

I often think this must be the reason for 
our own instinctive antagonism towards 
strangers, even when the antagonism may be 
very mild and scarcely conscious to our- 
selves. But when the stranger has become 
a pleasant acquaintance or even a trusted 
friend, we are almost uniformly surprised to 
realize how different he or she really is from 
our first conception. I need not labor a 
point which will scarcely be disputed, un- 
less somebody is very much in want of an 
argument. 

Well, that is reason No. 1 for disliking a 
subject upon which so many people are en- 
tirely ignorant. 

No. 2 1 am afraid I must confess is due to 
the very '' bad company " in which the 
words " spiritualists " and '' spirits " have 
too often been found ; as Mr. Myers was 
fond of reminding us at one time. 

Of course the same applies to every other 
label upon earth, more or less. We might 
as reasonably object to clergymen, because 



98 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

many of us have known, or certainly heard 
of, ministers of religion who were not only 
immoral, but also dishonest, and sometimes 
hopeless hypocrites. Or we might refuse to 
meet doctors, because the famous William 
Palmer poisoned so many unfortunate peo- 
ple, thanks to his medical training and 
knowledge. A schoolfellow of my own, to 
whom I was greatly attached, insisted on 
marrying a clever doctor, against the wishes 
of her family. After living together for 
several years and having five children, he 
grew tired of her and poisoned her, in order 
that he might marry a young governess, 
whom he had insisted upon keeping in the 
house. Fortunately for the vindication of 
justice, he committed the extraordinary 
blunder of marrying this young woman in 
London during the Queen's Jubilee — the 
very week after he had buried his poor wife. 
He had managed the poisoning so well and 
so carefully, that except for this monstrous 
stupidity no one would have suspected him 
— no one, at least, except another schoolfel- 
low of mine, who had been trained as a 
nurse and who was staying in the house at 
the time, or rather up to three days previous 
to, the death of our poor friend. The doc- 
tor evidently suspected her of suspecting 



SPIRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 99 

him, for it came out in evidence that he had 
insulted her in every possible way for some 
weeks before the consummation of the 
tragedy, wishing to get her out of the way. 
She refused to accept any insult from him, 
when broad hints had failed to move her ; 
but finally his patience was exhausted, and 
he practically turned her out of the house: 
Three days later my poor married school- 
friend died, her husband having hurried 
matters up so soon as he felt himself free 
from the keen watch that had been kept 
upon him, with so much courage and de- 
voted friendship. As a matter of fact it was 
the diary, so carefully kept by this brave 
woman, which hanged the doctor in the 
end ; but his own extraordinary lapse from 
common sense, by marrying the governess 
wathin a week or ten days, tied the noose 
round his neck by supplying motive, and 
leading to the exhuming of the remains of 
his poor victim. 

Now I think I have made out a very good 
case — in this true story — for denouncing all 
doctors, if I were as much at the mercy of 
my prejudices as many anti-spiritualists 
seem to be ! 

I must apologize for going off the track 
when this sad and gruesome little story sug- 



100 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

gested itself as an illustration. To return 
to the subject. There is a No. 3 reason, 
which is possibly the strongest of all, and 
which may be split into two. Firstly, that 
spiritualists are often intense bores and apt 
to become monomaniacs, and secondl}^ that 
they look " queer," and are sometimes ec- 
centric. I suppose all enthusiasts are apt to 
look queer and to be eccentric. But I must 
confess we might have a more keen sense of 
humor sometimes, and talk less, perhaps, of 
the " summer land '^ and of '' planes of 
thought and expression," and ^' unfold- 
ment" and *' development," and so forth 
and so on. 

This is why I am personally extremely 
thankful that my own education and " un- 
foldment" had gone on for a good many 
years, upon social and musical and literary 
lines, before the special study and investiga- 
tion, to which I have devoted my later life, 
came within my horizon. 

I think it is a decided advantage, because 
it gives one more perspective, a truer sense 
of values and proportion, and lastly and 
most important of all, because it is so very 
hard to give individual attention to other 
matters when once this absorbing subject 
comes into one's life. We came here for 



SPIRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 101 

the experiences of life as a whole ; and I 
think the " other life '^ investigations come 
for most of us, more seasonably, whole- 
somely and naturally, when we have al- 
ready had ample opportunity for experience 
of life on the present plane. 

Moreover, I think this wider experience 
gives us greater influence and weight in 
dealing with the outside world. But every 
rule has its exceptions and there are of 
course many born psychics, to whom it ap- 
pears quite natural to live in both spheres 
at once. Much of the best work in the 
world has been done by these ; from prophets 
and mystics onwards. 

I have been reading lately the French 
translation from the German by Dr. 
Encausse, of a remarkable book given in 
the form of an occult romance, and entitled 
Au Pays des Esprits. Towards the end of 
the book the subject of Modern Spiritualism 
is handled in the following way : 

A great occult teacher, named Chundra, 
is speaking to his pupil " Louis," the hero 
of the story, and he says : " The mediums 
of whom John Dudley has written such 
marvellous descriptions, declare themselves 
inspired by the great spirits of the earth. 
They affirm that their accounts are exact 



102 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

and describe that which we believe it to be 
impossible to put into human language. 

^* They are ' sensitives/ Louis — magnetized 
by the spirits, they give information that the 
world is ripe for receiving. Imagine the 
most difficult and abstract problem of 
Euclid brought down to the comprehension 
of children ! Well ! The descriptions of ,/ 
the countries of the Unseen, which come to 
us through the lips of somnambulists, have 
equally to be brought within our compre- 
hension. As for the great names used, so 
long as Humanity is dependent upon their 
authority, they will be heard in all s^aiice 
rooms, for mediums are perhaps even more 
influenced by their audience than by the 
spirits. The latter are only anxious to give 
us the information in the words that we 
desire." 

Then Louis, the pupil, says : " All this 
seems very unworthy of a great movement." 

Chundra continues : " It must be that 
the world should progress, Louis ; and 
Spiritualism is the only means through 
which it can progress. Do you trouble 
yourself as to how your bread is made ? If 
you knew, perhaps you would never eat any 
more of it I And yet through this you are 
nourished, and you evolve physically. 



SPIRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 103 

Don't trouble yourself too much about de- 
tails. The movement of modern Spiritual- 
ism is only the chaotic reflection of igno- 
rance and credulity. It is, however, the first 
step towards the breaking of the seals, 
towards the Apocalyptic time which is ap- 
proaching. These beginnings are more im- 
portant than the next efforts of the kind. 
Man will advance more and more towards 
the Divine Kingdom — the elements will 
approach nearer to Humanity — all creation 
will go up one step on the Ladder of Life. 
Everything depends therefore on the initial 
movement which comes to break up the old 
order of things and to inaugurate the new 
— Be patient." 

The anonymous author is a little too hard 
in his generalization of modern Spiritualism 
as merely a necessary evil — a chaotic re- 
flection of ignorance and credulity. Yet 
perhaps at some future time, in the irradia- 
ting light of further revelations, many of 
the most convinced Spiritualists of the 
present day may describe their earlier and 
more limited knowledge in similar words. 
In the blaze of sunshine we are apt to 
forget the beauty and rapture of the dawn, 
thanks to which we are not still in the dark. 

Some readers may think — judging by my 



104 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHEUSTIANITY 

fervent appeal to our spiritual teachers and 
pastors to look into these things for them- 
selves, that I write as a spiritualistic prop- 
agandist _pi6r et simple. 

Such is by no means the case — but quite 
the contrary. I have always said, and shall 
always maintain, that indiscriminate in- 
vestigations of this nature are, in the highest 
degree, dangerous — dangerous both to the 
physical and the moral health. It must be 
so. You open a door through which may 
rush a crowd of ignorant, undeveloped, even 
malignant entities, anxious only to make 
mischief and eager to play upon your idle 
curiosity or your vanity, whilst showing 
you a few specimens of abnormal powers as 
their credentials. Few of us will be bold 
enough to affirm that we can always be sure 
of keeping our heads level in the face of 
subtle flattery, so long as it is not laid on 
with too heavy a hand. 

The lower class of spirits on the other 
side become great adepts in the art of dis- 
criminating flattery. The soothing oint- 
ment is concocted very carefull}^ and with a 
view to the peculiar necessities of each in- 
dividual case. For the ordinary investi- 
gator, it is sufficient to promise riches and 
earthly possessions as the direct outcome of 



SPIRITUALISM—ITS USE AND ABUSE 105 

his very superior acumen and business in- 
stinct, or power of dealing with his fellow 
men — but all cannot be manipulated in this 
very obvious way. 

Others are told that they have been 
chosen as great teachers of evolutionary 
truth, and that their mission is " unfold- 
ing " daily, and will do so still more 
rapidly, if they keep in touch with their 
spirit friends — generally through the help 
of mediums. 

A step higher than this come the mes- 
sages from departed friends, or even from 
departed foes, craving help in their upward 
course or forgiveness for some vague wrong 
in the past. Far be it from me to say that 
there may not be a basis of truth in any or 
all of these cases, but I do know from per- 
sonal experience that even when the con- 
scious or unconscious mind of medium and 
sitter are both justifiably excluded, there re- 
mains a residuum of specious flattery on the 
part of the entities themselves, which ought 
to warn us that we are dealing, not with 
wise counsellors, but with spirits who have 
an object to gain, and who are not over- 
scrupulous as to the means employed. Pos- 
sibly such spirits are more frequently 
actuated by ordinary love of power than by 



106 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

any more malignant motives, but the latter 
cannot be entirely ignored. I know of a 
case where a young and charming woman, 
intelligent, musical and artistic, has had her 
life completely wrecked by listening to the 
counsels of a spirit on the other side, pro- 
fessing to be one of those nearest and dear- 
est to her. This entity promised her all 
sorts of marvellous experiences and wonder- 
ful knowledge if she would only listen to 
his advice. Unfortunately she believed in 
the identity of her self-constituted guide, 
and blindly followed his directions, with the 
result that her mind became unhinged, her 
home broken up, and that which might 
have been a very happy and normal life 
was turned into misery for herself and those 
who love her. There are hundreds of such 
cases, attesting to the abuse and not the use 
of Spiritualism. They should not be 
ignored b}'- us, but should rather act as 
marsh lights, warning us of the swamps 
and morasses for the unwary on the darker 
side of psychical research. Was it not 
Martin Luther who declared that he would 
go to the Diet of Worms, even " if it rained 
devils y^ or ^ as some chronicles put it — " even 
if there were as many devils there as tiles on 
the roofs of the houses.'^ I prefer the former 



SriRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 107 

version as stronger and more picturesque, 
and I dare say it is equally historical. 
Martin Luther had a great work to per- 
form, and he could meet devils on more 
equal terms than most of us weaker souls. 
Unless we are firmly convinced of some 
very pressing necessity, I think most of us 
had better give them a wide berth. 

In saying this, I do not of course ignore 
the very helpful and loving intercourse 
that may exist between us and the next 
sphere. To many of us life would be un- 
thinkable and unbearable without the con- 
sciousness of this. Here there is no ques- 
tion of false flattery or selfish counsels, for 
the pure and loving help of our dear ones 
on the other side is far above any such crit- 
icism. 

Again, to some people, these investiga- 
tions have come as an obvious life-work. 
They have been set apart, perhaps all their 
lives, from ordinary human ties and human 
interests, and may have fiercely rebelled 
against that fact. They have watched the 
often happy and certainly full and busy 
lives of their neighbors, with envy and re- 
gret. The years pass and only negation and 
renunciation of the ordinary joys and sor- 
rows of human life seem to be their portion. 



108 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

And then, at long last, the dawn may come 
and the key to the riddle of their " uni- 
verse " is put into their hands. They have 
been preparing unconsciously during these 
long years of drought and famine for the 
work that was to come later ; and we cannot 
doubt that the full Harvest of the years of 
plenty will some day crown their efforts. I 
have known more than one case where the 
dark problems of a long life have received 
such a solution. 

These people may well say, in spite of all 
dissentient voices and protesting friends and 
relatives, " * Henceforth let no man trouble 
me, for I bear in my body the marks of the 
Lord Jesus ; * of His mission for me in these 
modern days of strife and confusion and 
mental unrest." 

But we must remember that it is not onlv 
pioneers who are needed in these researches. 
We want also guides and even scouts to warn 
us of the approach of the enemy. Perhaps 
the best scout will be that inner monitor 
who warns us (if we encourage rather than 
silence him) that our outworks are being 
captured by the insidious forces of flattery, 
and that we shall soon be bound hand and 
foot in our own citadel, if the enemy be not 
instantly repulsed. 



SPIRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 100 

George Eliot said to me, many years ago, 
but after passing to the other side of life, 
'* If you and others could only see the dark 
and malign influences surrounding you, 
under which you have to fight your life's 
battle, you would lose heart and courage en- 
tirely/' 

Fortunately for most of us, ** our eyes are 
holden," and for the more sensitive souls 
there is but one course left open — to go for- 
ward as brave old Martin Luther did, ** in the 
strength of the Lord," and say with him, 
*^Ifit rains devils ^ I will not he afraid. They 
shall not turn me from my purpose — from 
the work put into my hands. I will look 
upon them as necessary discipline, so long 
as I am not able wholly to ignore their 
presence. God is greater than the devils. 
They are but negative to His divine posi- 
tive, and the day must come when they are 
negative also to my divine consciousness." 

Most people are inclined to ignore this 
darker side of psychic facts altogether, and 
in the main this is a wise course. There 
are many psychical researchers and workers 
who are not in the least degree highly sen- 
sitive. Mr. W. T. Stead, for instance, al- 
ways maintains that he is one of these. 
Probably he could not do all the work to 



110 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

which he has been called under any other 
conditions. But in an evolving world, this 
higher degree of sensitiveness to impressions 
is bound to come at some stage in our evo- 
lution, simply because, as we have said be- 
fore, evolution abhors gaps as much as 
Nature abhors vacuums. So that the whole 
human body must at some time become 
more highly sensitized ; which merely means 
become receptive to finer vibrations, and 
therefore conscious of the presence of entities 
living in a more ethereal condition than 
that of which our ordinary physical senses 
can at present take cognizance. 

Such sensitives may have some interest 
(probably must have some interest) in psy- 
chical questions ; but so long as they take 
no active part in the propaganda, they may 
expect to be left alone by the malignant en- 
tities to which I refer. Both these classes 
will therefore join in advising their less for- 
tunate (?) fellow-creatures to ignore these 
darker facts and to treat them as illusions 
of the imagination. 

But this is poor comfort for those of us 
who know that malignant entities, eager to 
discourage all efforts towards a fuller com- 
prehension of God's truth, are an undeni- 
able fact. 



SPIRITUALISM— ITS USE AND ABUSE 111 

They do not dwell only in the imagina- 
tion, but are too often permitted to give 
practical proof both of their presence and, 
within limits, of their power to bring about 
physical disaster upon their victims. I 
shall have more to say about this in a future 
chapter. I only touch upon it here in order 
to explain my reason for treating this un- 
pleasant subject from a positive rather than 
a purely negative point of view. 

Three-fourths or possibly four-fifths of our 
psychical investigators can afford to treat the 
matter in the latter way, and they will tell 
you quite sensibly and reasonably, that by 
ignoring such ideas they have kept entirely 
free from any trouble. But I am writing 
just at this moment for that minority of 
highly-sensitized workers who can only ig- 
nore what is as real to them as any other 
fact in life, by the Christian Science device 
of changing words and thereby supposing 
they have changed facts. To say you have 
only a ** belief in sore throat/^ instead of say- 
ing boldly that you *' have a sore throat,'^ is 
not much consolation to the sufferer. If the 
Science healer can try conclusions with 
your sore throat and get the better of it, or 
enable you to do the same, that is quite an- 
other matter. 



112 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

If a fact is too patent to be simply 
ignored, we must find some other way of 
dealing with it, and I think Luther helps 
us there. When his malignant spirits on 
the psychic plane became too aggressive, he 
didn't ignore them — he threw ink-pots at 
them, and this seems to have been equally 
efficacious ! Anyway, they were not allowed 
in the long run to stop his work, although 
no doubt they obstructed it as much as pos- 
sible, and gave him " a very bad time," in 
modern parlance. 

We must expect the same, in our own 
small way, if we attempt to oppose the 
forces of darkness and obscurantism by 
doing any definite work, and if we are at the 
same time extremely sensitive. 

My friend. Lady Wincote (of Seen and 
Unseen) told me once of some experiences of 
her own, arising from a sensitive condition 
to Unseen entities, and of a curiously sug- 
gestive message which was given to her at 
the time, and which was to the following 
effect : 

" If you are not strong enough for these 
tests, then you had better give up the whole 
subject. But before deciding to do so, you 
must realize that no second opportunity will 
come to you during your present lifetime. 



SPIRITUALISM—ITS USE AND ABUSE 113 

All have to pass through these dark zones 
in their upward path, at some stage in their 
experience. If you feel unequal to the 
task, it is better to resign it ; but you will 
have to work out the experience later." 

She said she felt at the time such an in- 
flux of courage that it seemed impossible to 
doubt or to hesitate. 

In proportion as the Light shines, the 
darkness disappears ; and so in the measure 
in which we can appropriate and keep burn- 
ing brightly the divine Sun of Righteous- 
ness in our hearts, will the shadows of the 
night flee away. 

The dark entities of ignorance and envy 
may work us some spiritual and even 
physical discomfort and harm now ; but if 
we are faithful to the Light that is within, 
and are chiefly concerned to keep that shi- 
ning, it will search out all dark corners in 
our surroundings and chase away all ghostly 
enemies, that may injure the body or " as- 
sault and hurt the soul.'* 



CHAPTER VIII 

OCCULT — AND OTHERWISE 

A LADY, with whom I was at one time in 
rather close relations regarding psychic 
matters (as to which she had known noth- 
ing before my meeting with her) told me of 
a curious dream she had had about herself 
and me just about that time. 

She dreamed that she and I were walk- 
ing together and came to a narrow lane in 
the country. This lane had a locked gate 
at either end, and a guardian was placed at 
each gate. As we approached, he unlocked 
the gate for us and allowed us to go in with- 
out any word of warning. As we went 
further on, however, some most unpleasant 
experiences came to us. The lane seemed 
to be the haunt of wild beasts : lions and 
tigers prowled around and came a great deal 
too near us for our peace of mind. By extra 
agility and some display of courage we seem 
to have eluded them and managed to get 
safely and with our bones intact, to the 
other end of the lane, where we found the 

114 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 115 

second gate, also locked, and the second 
guardian. 

My friend immediately attacked him and 
his fellow-janitor with bitter reproaches for 
not having given us some idea of the 
dangers we were running ; upon which he 
said quietly and in a very final tone, which 
admitted of no discussion : " If it had not 
been known that you would be able to get 
through in safety, you would not have 
been allowed to enter the lane at all." 

This has always seemed to me a very 
suggestive little parable. I think it is very 
applicable to all forms of psychical re- 
search, and more especially to the occult 
side of it. The domain of occult science 
must naturally be a shifting boundary, ac- 
cording to the amount of our individual 
knowledge of abnormal capacities and pos- 
sibilities. The commonest forms of human 
knowledge are necessarily *' occult " (hidden 
— unknown) to the nearest ant-heap, and, 
in a lesser degree, probably to most of our 
domestic animals — although the latter cer- 
tainly seem to run some of us rather close 
in the question of intelligence. 

All the great religions of the world have 
had their esoteric as well as their exoteric 
aspects. In ancient days the knowledge of 



116 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

the priest always transcended the knowledge 
of the people. The former depended upon 
the essence of the faith, of which the people 
saw only the more or less ornate mani- 
festations. 

Only the great Initiates, prepared through 
long years of self-denial and abstinence for 
the reception of the innermost revelation 
of the truths of the universe could really 
penetrate to the heart of the mysteries of 
their religion. It was not a question of 
*' keeping things '* from the outer crowds. 
It was the mere fact that without long 
spiritual training and vast experience these 
latter could not enter the holy of holies with 
any degree of understanding, and would 
therefore merely have vulgarized and mis- 
conceived the most sacred truths of the 
Shrine. At the root of all these great re- 
ligions and behind their outward manifesta- 
tions, the initial truths seem always to have 
been the same. The outer manifestations 
differed with differing countries, climates 
and social conditions. The basic and 
esoteric truth was always the Unity of the 
Divine — His dual and thence His threefold 
nature. God the Essence — male and female 
— God the Son thence proceeding — God, 
the Divine Word — the Divine Manifesta- 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 117 

tion in all worlds — in this or any other 
Universe. How could the vast congrega- 
tions who flocked to the temples realize 
these transcendent truths en masse f It was 
impossible, and so the esoteric doctrine 
grew and was tenderly nurtured in the very 
innermost shrines of the Initiates ; whilst 
they gave to the outer world as much as it 
could assimilate, under the only forms of 
speech or ceremony which could be '* under- 
standed of the people.'^ 

Jesus Christ Himself, the last and greatest 
Divine Word in manifestation, followed the 
same course, in spite of His sublime sim- 
plicity of teaching and absence of all cere- 
monial or outward show. There were still 
" many things " He could not tell His dis- 
ciples — why? Simply because they were 
not at a point of growth when they could 
have received these many things without 
mental confusion and misconception. Christ 
always worked along the lines of evolution, 
never in antagonism to them. He never 
forced spiritual experiences upon those un- 
prepared for them. 

His appeal was ever to Nature in His 
parables, and He followed the methods of 
Nature in allowing growth to develop — in 
never forcing it to do so. 



118 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

Therefore with Him preeminently there 
was an esoteric as well as an exoteric aspect 
of Truth. 

Whether we read of Krishna in India, of 
Hermes in Egypt, of Orpheus in Greece, or 
of Pythagoras (who although a Samian by 
birth, was educated in the mysteries of the 
esoteric doctrine in Egypt), the story is the 
same — long years of discipline, of learning 
to control the will and its rebellious in- 
stincts, of submitting to tests of courage and 
endurance — of trials by fire or water, or the 
menace of death, or the awakening from 
deep trance to renewed terrestrial life. 
These were only so many different methods 
of " keeping under the body " and " bring- 
ing it into subjection," which was the 
Pauline translation of the same great truth. 

The great tests of initiation, of which we 
read, seem to have been in reality a sort of 
condensed object-lesson on the fierce trials 
of human life for each human soul, and the 
courage and endurance and submission and 
faith needed by each one of us, if we are to 
be accounted worthy in the end of the 
prize of our high calling — worthy to be 
instructed further in the divine spiritual 
wisdom. 

These ancient initiations often seem to 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 119 

have lasted the best part of a lifetime. One 
wonders that any neophyte had patience to 
endure to the end ; yet we all have to 
endure our own lives to the end, and for 
many of us these need as much courage and 
faith and often self-sacrifice ! It is the 
grand initiation of Life — of which all of us 
are the neophytes. 

Pythagoras spent twenty-two years with 
the priests of Egypt, going through the 
most severe tests before they considered him 
fit to receive the Divine mysteries which 
were guarded with such unswerving devo- 
tion. But what a grand twenty-two years 
it must have been, for he was preparing all 
the time for the final revelation ! It was in 
Egypt that he studied the Divine Science 
of Number and the Universal Principles, 
which afterwards, through the crucible of 
his genius, became the centre of his scheme 
of philosophy. There also he learned the 
prodigious powers of the human will, 
trained and exercised with wisdom and 
discretion — how it could affect for good or 
for evil the human body or the human soul. 
The Egyptian priests, his masters, taught 
that the Science of Number and the power 
of the human will were the two magical 
keys, and that with them all doors in the 



/ 



120 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

universe could be opened. Finally, it was 
in Egypt that he learned to comprehend 
the grand truth of the involution of Spirit in 
matter by a universal creation, and the 
evolution of spirit, ascending once more to 
the Divine Unity through that individual 
creation which we call the development of 
consciousness.^ 

Wonderful knowledge all this ! Well 
worth an immolation of more than twenty 
years amongst the grand old Egyptian tem- 
ples ! No wonder the priests waited all 
those years to assure themselves of his 
being a worthy disciple, fit to receive the 
two keys which would open all gates in the 
Universe. 

How different were these old methods 
from the superficial, half-digested knowl- 
edge of too many of our modern schools of 
occultism ! We seem to have lost count of 
the great spiritual truths of genuine occult- 
ism, and to be chiefly concerned with the 
marvellous and abnormal powers that we 
may learn to develop — powers which may 
land us in the very gravest dangers, and 
land our unfortunate friends there with us, 
if we begin experimenting upon them with 
our two keys of the Universe I 

^ Les Grands InitiSs—Pythagore. 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 121 

Law will act, whether evoked wisely or 
unwisely — gravitation will bring us down 
from the top of an omnibus or the window 
of a railway train, if we lean out too far, 
just as inevitably as it will enable us to keep 
our feet whilst whirling round in space, at 
inconceivable rates of motion. 

Therefore if we study occult science phys- 
ically before we have reached that extreme 
high-water mark morally, which would 
render us safe custodians of such abnormal 
powers, we shall no doubt succeed in using 
them and very possibly in doing consider- 
able damage mentally, if not also physically, 
to that special ion in the universe of human 
atoms which represents our individual self. 

We can learn how to call up elementals 
no doubt, and even insure their coming to 
us, but would most of us be any better for 
the experience ? I think not. We should 
probably learn too late that this form of 
service might have to be too dearly paid for 
in the end. If we want something done 
which we are not ashamed of owning to, I 
think it is much safer to appeal to the an- 
gels than to the elementals, and leave it to 
them to make use of the latter, should they 
see fit to do so. I confess that I don't know 
in the least what an angel is like ; but I use 



122 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

the term in a general sense to cover the 
kindly guardians, of whose presence the 
most obtuse amongst us must surely some- 
times be conscious. 

In this way we should at least be appeal- 
ing to those wiser than ourselves and not 
more limited ; to those who can see from 
above and not merely grope about at our 
good pleasure from below. And the com- 
mon-sense argument seems to me that if we 
are to have dealings with entities in any 
sphere but our own present one, it is a good 
deal better to invoke those further on in 
the evolutionary spiral and not those who 
are still many coils lower down — no, not 
even to get service out of them or as a sop 
to our curiosity and love of power. 

I am not speaking merely from theory in 
saying this. I joined an occult society once 
and went through several degrees in it. No 
doubt it was conducted on similar lines to 
others of the kind, and I have no reason to 
doubt the bona fides of any member of it — I 
speak only of my individual feeling in the 
matter, and have no wish to lay down the 
law or to force any opinion upon other peo- 
ple which does not appeal to their own 
views in such questions. Every one must 
judge for himself, and it is only as concerns 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 123 

our motives that any one of us will finally 
be judged — even by his own conscience. 

Before closing the subject I feel inclined 
to quote the words of a wise woman, who 
has been a constant source of help and con- 
solation to me, and whose automatic script 
I have given in Seen and Unseen under the 
initials '' E. G.'^ She passed over many 
years ago, and I did not know her person- 
ally in earth-life, although her name was 
naturally well known to me, and I have 
often been in the same company with her. 

She seemed quite willing that I should 
have the experience of a short novitiate in 
occult science, but after six or seven months, 
appeared to be equally anxious that I should 
renounce these studies. As I have an al- 
most morbid dread of allowing the " other 
side " friends to influence me unduly, I de- 
termined to wait until I could feel quite 
sure that I was acting upon my own initia- 
tive, and not blindly following her ideas. 
After all, we cannot live our lives at second- 
hand any more than we can learn to paint 
by allowing our master to touch up our 
feeble attempts and cover our errors with a 
few bold strokes of his practiced brush I 

So months passed on, and an evening 
came when I was anxious to have a little 



124 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

chat with one of my kind friends in the 
Unseen, as I was feeling rather depressed at 
the time. I think the scourge of influenza 
was upon us just then, and the whole nation 
was mourning the- loss of the King's eldest 
son. I had a most interesting and touching 
experience with the latter just about this 
time, by the by ; but for obvious reasons 
this cannot be made public. 

To return to our subject. Greatly to 
my disappointment, the friend I specially 
wished to see could not apparently come, 
and almost immediately the initials E. G. 
were knocked out. I asked if she would 
begin her message, and on receiving an af- 
firmative answer, started the usual weari- 
some alphabet, which I used at that time 
almost exclusively, having been warned 
that I was not yet sufficiently trained to 
take automatic messages with impunity. 

We had got as far as " you ha," when to 
hurry up matters (non-evidential) I did 
what I have often done in those days, made 
a guess and asked, " Is the next letter V ? " 
I felt quite sure the answer would be yes, 
and that the obvious word was '' have." 
But I was wrong — a most emphatic " No " 
was rapped out, and I was told to begin the 
alphabet over again. I did so, with the 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 125 

result that we arrived at " y '^ without any 
intimation or rising of the table to mark 
the right letter. I concluded that I must 
have passed it, by repeating some letter too 
rapidly to give time for the deliberate 
" rise " ; and was just going to start again 
impatiently, when to my surprise and relief 
the unmistakable sign came at the letter 
" z." Now I must confess, although it 
seemed to me very stupid later, that I could 
not for the moment think of any word 
beginning haz. So in perfect mental fog, 
which prevented any possibility of mere 
lazy guessing on my part, we started again. 
The table rose at " a '* instantly, and the 
word " hazard " was spelled out. 

I have only given this special word in 
detail, because it was so entirely outside 
any mental suggestion of my own at the 
time. Of course we must always make 
terms for the mysterious and omniscient 
subconscious self of which we all talk so 
much — and know so little ! 

When the sentence was completed it ran 
thus : '* You will soon hazard my respect 
for you if you neglect my repeated injunc- 
tion to give up your novitiate in occult 
science." 

I asked at once : 



126 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AXD CHRISTIANITY 

" Why ? Is it wrong in itself, or wrong 
forme?" 

The answer was very suggestive, and al- 
though some will think it too drastic as 
regards occult studies in general, it cer- 
tainly put the truth so far as I, personally, 
was concerned, into a nutshell : 

" Both, It should only he studied as a 
natural stage in the souVs progression; not 
as a forced and artificial groivth — full of 
danger^ 

We are between " Scylla and Chary bdis " 
in this as in everything else in life. We 
are here to find the true balance of things, 
and our own special stage of growth — men- 
tal, moral and physical — without dogma- 
tizing and laying down hard and fast rules 
for other people. | 

To shut ourselves out from all studies 
that may have a dangerous possibility 
would mean practically exclusion from all 
forms of knowledge^ though not of wisdom. 
But I suppose knowledge and its acquisi- 
tion is perfectly legitimate in its proper 
place, and is obviously part of our present 
training? All knowledge may be abused 
as well as used, in common with every 
other human possession. This fact doubt- 
less led to the deification of ignorance and 



OCCULT— AND OTHERWISE 127 

terror of the intellect which marked a pre- 
vious age to this one. 

We might as well refuse to go out into 
the streets for fear of being run over by a 
motor-car or an omnibus, and sit at home 
all day, to pine away from want of exercise 
or to be crushed by the falling of a wall in 
our own house ! 

With reference to what I have already 
said as regards the esoteric side of our 
Lord's mission, I think the following trans- 
lation from an interesting commentary on 
Saint Jean by a doctor of the Sorbonne, who 
calls himself Alta, may be worth quoting. 
Speaking of the many things which Jesus 
Christ said His followers could not yet un- 
derstand, but which He promised should be 
revealed later, the author goes on to say : — 

'' The fact that the Holy Spirit— the Re- 
vealer — has suggested for a certain moment 
a certain wise decision, does not prevent the 
same Divine Spirit enlightening our spirits 
still further during the course of the ages. 

^* A formula, no matter whence it comes, 
in what language, in what phase of the 
human mentality, falls quickly from the 
domain of authority into the domain of 
Science ; for no matter how infallible such 
a formula may be, it must of necessity 



128 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

appeal to criticism, to philology, to philos- 
ophy, to intelligence, in order to establish 
the authenticity, the intention, the sense 
and meaning of the words which constitute 
it. Yesterday cannot suppress to-day, nor 
can to-day paralyze to-morrow. 

" The symbol of the true Church is not a 
Rock but a Ship, It is not the Basilica of 
St. Peter in Rome. It is St. Peter's ship 
upon the waters of Galilee — the Galilee of 
the nations. Peter may be the pilot, but it 
is the function neither of the pilot nor of 
the captain of a ship to command the waves 
nor to forbid them to break, to swell, or to 
recede in due course. On the contrary, it is 
just this breaking and movement of the 
waves which bears onward the ship. 

" The Divine Spirit breathes in different 
ways in different souls ; so that from the 
clash of opinions the light may be kindled, 
and thus the daring of one mind will balance 
the timidity of another ; the resistance of 
this man will moderate the dogmatism of 
that one, and thus the progress of the Future 
shall carry on — without breaking them — 
the links of the Past.'* 



CHAPTER IX 

AUTOMATIC WRITING — ITS USE AND ABUSE 

I THINK it may be well to recapitulate the 
divisions I have given to this subject in my 
last book, Do the Dead Depart. 

First — Intuitional writing. By this I 
mean to indicate where pen or pencil is used, 
but where only the broad general idea is 
given from the Unseen, the whole detail 
being consciously added by the use of the 
medium's own brain capacity with its in- 
dividuality of wording and expression. 
This kind of writing, although lowest in the 
scale from the automatic point of view, has 
its own very obvious advantages. It is more 
usually found in agents of some strength of 
character and power of intellect, and such 
persons are those least likely to be victims 
of tri fling or deceptive messages. Their own 
strong personality drives off the mere tramp 
or vagrant from the spirit spheres. 

Secondly — Inspirational writing. This is 
perhaps the most desirable of all, given a 
person of solid character and high aspira- 

129 



130 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

tions, likely to attract inspiration of the 
noblest kind. We are too apt to forget that 
inspiration merely indicates a method, and 
may be divine or infernal. 

In inspirational writing, not only the 
main idea would be given, but also as much 
of the clothing of the idea in earth language 
as is compatible with an absence of entire 
control over the personality of the agent. 

Thirdly — Automatic writing in the pri- 
mary sense of the term. This would be 
where the personality of the scribe is com- 
pletely overshadowed, and in such cases the 
process is generally slower, more deficient, 
and necessarily more exhausting. It is prob- 
ably more exhausting for the communica- 
ting intelligence also, and perhaps not 
always more truly accurate, except in verbal 
expression. 

Fourthly — The last class comprises auto- 
matic writing of the above description, 
where the control is so absolute that the 
message does not pass through the conscious 
physical brain at all, but seems to take place 
as though some unseen hand guided the 
fingers of the recipient, without impressing 
the physical brain. My own first attempts 
at automatic writing took place when I was 
a young girl of eighteen, and I am thank- 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 131 

ful to say they were eminently unsuccessful. 
Nothing but long straggling lines of mean- 
ingless pothooks, or endless loops and twists, 
were the result. At long last I did get a 
few letters of the alphabet and even a 
sentence, but this sentence always was the 
same : " Emmie is an enemy — Emmie is 
an enemy," repeated ad nauseam I 

No matter when or where I made the at- 
tempt, this was the invariable outcome, after 
a good many meaningless lines and loops 
had been drawn. So I became tired of au- 
tomatic writing as a parlor game and left it 
severely alone for many years. After my first 
visit to America and when circumstances 
had led me to the path of psychical investi- 
gation, which I have never deserted, I made 
fresh attempts to develop in this way ; not 
knowing enough in those days to realize the 
dangers lurking under this apparently inno- 
cent pursuit. These efforts were not so un- 
successful as those of my early girlhood, but 
I abandoned the subject, so far as personal 
experiment went, simply because my kind 
friends and helpers on the other side most 
urgently requested me to do so, although 
they did not at that time enter into any de- 
tail of the reason for the prohibition. This, 
however, was so constant and so decided in 



132 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

tone that I did not feel it possible to disre- 
gard their repeated injunctions, and as a mat- 
ter of fact it did not occur to me to ask for 
an explanation of the precise dangers they 
foresaw, and which I have since had so many 
opportunities of observing. 

** Leave it alone — lay it down — do not at- 
tempt this land of writing — it is dangerous for 
you at present — we mil let you know later if 
you can try it with safety ^ 

In one or other of these sentences the 
warning was always given. I accepted it, 
feeling convinced of their hona fides and wise 
precaution, and I have never failed to thank 
them for the counsel. I know now what 
untold trouble and confusion might have 
followed, both for myself and for others, 
had I disregarded the prudent counsel. 

For fully five years the embargo remained. 
Then it was lifted, and I was told that a 
strong band of spirits would now be formed 
to protect me from danger if I wished to 
communicate at stated and reasonable times 
with my friends in the '* higher life.** This 
has always been the case. I cannot recall a 
single instance where any real discomfort 
has been caused or any positively false in- 
formation has been given. Mistakes have 
often been made, especially as regards time, 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 133 

which the friends always say they cannot 
calculate as we do. They have ever warned 
me not to give absolute credence to any pre- 
vision. They can see a little further than 
we do, and can often calculate the probable 
trend of events more accurately, but they 
are no more omniscient than ourselves, and 
so far as time calculations are concerned, 
they see events as far or near, not according 
to our time divisions of weeks or months 
or years, but as clouds, of which the nature 
can be gathered by the brighter or deeper 
shadows, and the approximate time-limit by 
their greater or lesser density. 

Apart from the usual old stories of foolish 
women parting with diamonds and valuable 
lace or large sums of money in response to 
messages from the Unseen, and of foolish 
men and women contracting disastrous mar- 
riages in accordance with the supposed ad- 
vice of the " dear spirits *' — advice not al- 
ways obtained by automatic script — I think 
my first important experience of the danger 
of tampering with automatic writing whilst 
in an undeveloped and therefore unguarded 
psychical condition, came through my ac- 
quaintance with the Mrs. Forbes of the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research records. When 
she was overwhelmed with grief at the sad 



134: PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

and sudden loss of her only son, I had ad- 
vised her — as a very old friend of her hus- 
band — to try sitting alone every day for ten 
or fifteen minutes, and concentrating her 
mind upon the boy ; striving to realize his 
presence and continued life, and to give hos- 
pitality mentally to any attempt on his part 
to respond. It would never have occurred 
to me to suggest her attempting automatic 
writing, as she had then no experience 
whatever in these subjects. Moreover, her 
husband disapproved of them, and had never 
allowed her to join the Society for Psychical 
Research, and out of loyalty to him I should 
certainly not have taken the responsibility 
of attempting to set her feet at once in such 
an advanced stage on the road. I felt that 
no one could object to any mother sitting 
quietly and alone to meditate upon her boy 
as a living reality, and I hoped that by de- 
grees this daily exercise might bring some 
consolation in helping her to realize spirit- 
ual facts. 

Even when she wrote to me ten days 
later and said, with delighted gratitude, 
that she was now in constant, daily com- 
munication with her boy, I was still under 
the impression that this communion was on 
the mental and spiritual plane, and did not 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 135 

understand until weeks later, that she had 
already, and from the first, used material 
means to bring about the communications. 
Had I done so, I should not have been so 
much surprised by receiving a despairing 
letter from her a week or two later, which 
was in sad contrast to those which had pre- 
ceded it : — 

" / must give it all up^ this intercourse with 
my son. It cannot be a right and holy thing, 
or I should not have had such a terrible ex- 
perience. It seems to me in my despair as if I 
had lost my boy over again^ 

She then went on to describe what must 
certainly have been a most painful and ter- 
rifying experience. It seems that some 
entity, giving the name of a man she had 
known and esteemed, and one well known 
in psychic circles, had forced his way in 
through the door left open by her pre- 
mature and inexperienced efforts at com- 
munication ; that she had felt as if an al- 
most personal combat were going on be- 
tween him and her son for the supremacy, 
the clash of personalities and ensuing dis- 
cord being thrown upon her, and result- 
ing in a terrifying night's experience. To- 
wards morning the attack seemed to be re- 
laxed, and eventually she felt that she and 



136 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

her boy together had won the victory. It 
had left her naturally much perturbed and 
with a strong conviction for the time being 
that she must cut herself off from all inter- 
course of any sort or kind with her beloved 
son, on this side of the Veil. 

Now Mrs. Forbes was, and no doubt still 
is, firmly convinced that the intruding 
spirit was a false one, assuming the name 
and personality of an old acquaintance, and 
that he had nothing in the world to do 
with the original and true individual. Of 
course, this may be so ; on the other hand, 
I think this special episode admits of a far 
more natural explanation. When this gen- 
tleman was alive, Talbot Forbes must have 
been quite a young child, and probably 
rather in the way when the former came to 
see his mother ; as young children requir- 
ing a good deal of attention are apt to be in 
the eyes of casual visitors. Later, the child 
grows up, is suddenly cut off in early man- 
hood and goes over to the other side, 
within reach, no doubt, of the mother's old 
friend. Through communication opened 
up between mother and son, the former 
friend would find himself once more within 
touch, as it were, of Mrs. Forbes. Talbot 
Forbes (who must have appeared almost a 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 137 

boy to the man, much older when on earth, 
and still older in spirit life) was, however, 
in complete monopoly of the spirit tele- 
phone, and doubtless resented any interfer- 
ence with his rights. He knew nothing of 
the man claiming to know his mother and 
who had died in his own childhood. Why 
should he accept his word and give up his 
place to a stranger, even for a moment, of 
this short and precious time of intercourse 
with his mother? The older man would 
almost inevitably be put down by the 
young one as an impostor, whilst the former 
would doubtless look upon Talbot as a 
great nuisance, and obstacle in the way of 
renewing a valued friendship so unex- 
pectedly made possible for him. In fact, 
Talbot, as a young man, was playing the 
same rdle consciously, as I have suggested 
may possibly have been played uncon- 
sciously by him as a child. The antago- 
nism on either side and the misconception 
on Talbot's part, who might feel he must 
guard his mother from this impersonating 
evil and deceitful spirit ; all this would be 
thrown upon Mrs. Forbes and materialize 
itself as a deadly conflict between her son 
and an emissary of Satan. She, on this 
plane, and the son on the other plane, with- 



138 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AXD CHRISTIANITY 

stood the enemy, who appears to have given 
way at last in sheer despair. 

Now this is only my alternative sugges- 
tion, which I have no doubt Mrs. Forbes 
herself would deny from start to finish. 
Knowing something of human nature in 
general and by report of this special man^s 
nature in particular, I think my view is at 
any rate a common-sense one. The sug- 
gestion of wickedness in connection with 
the impersonating spirit w^ould not mate- 
rially affect the question ; because it might 
obviously be the hypnotic response of Mrs. 
Forbes to her son's preconception. 

It was on this occasion that I begged my 
friends in the next sphere to give me some 
information on the subject. They did not 
enter into the rights or wrongs of this special 
case (which ma}'- or may not have been clear 
to them). They took the more practical 
course of explaining to me the confusion 
and deceptions that might so easily arise 
through a premature exercise of automatic 
writing, and for the following very sensible 
reason. They said practically — ** The initial 
mistake was made when Mrs. Forbes adopted 
this method of communication instead of 
following your instructions literally. She 
is not at present sufiBciently developed to be 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 139 

able to use automatic writing without risk/' 
When I asked why automatic writing was 
more risky than mental communication 
with the other side, the answer was — as it 
seemed to me — both simple and sensible : 
*^ The more material your methods of com- 
munication, the greater risk there is of 
attracting the more material spirits, who 
are ever waiting about, watching for suit- 
able opportunities to make themselves recog- 
nized by you on earth. Now a pen or pencil 
is obviously more material than a thought. 
Therefore the more earth-bound spirits can 
manipulate pen or pencil or table and 
Planchette more easily than they can ma- 
nipulate and mould your thoughts." 

The mention of Planchette reminds me 
of another case which came under my own 
observation, and where the results were 
obviously and unmistakably bad, and 
admit of no such whitewashing as I have 
attempted in the Forbes case. 

A lady I know took a house some years 
ago in the South Kensington district, and 
she and her husband went to live there with 
their four children. 

I think some of the fixtures and possibly 
a little furniture were taken over with the 
house. At any rate it turned out subse- 



140 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

quently that an old Planchette had been 
left in one of the nurseries. This lady'a 
eldest daughter, whom I will call Pansy, 
was at that time a pretty child of twelve, 
very truthful and straightforward, whose 
word could be absolutely relied upon. 

Soon after they were all established in the 
home, poor little Pansy complained to her 
mother of seeing a " wicked-looking old 
woman, with thin gray hair and terribly 
cruel black eyes," in the back drawing-room. 
Up to this time the lady knew nothing at 
all about psychic matters and took absolutely 
no interest in them. She had lived for 
years in one of our Colonies and had had 
far more practical matters to occupy her 
time and thoughts. Naturally, however, 
she was greatly distressed when this child — 
whose word she had never had reason to 
doubt — persisted in her tale. She said the 
old woman did not frighten her so much 
when other people were in the room, be- 
cause she did not put on such a horrible ex- 
pression then. But when the poor child 
was left alone by any chance in the drawing- 
room, especially in the back part of it, the 
old woman took the opportunity of making 
faces at her and rendering herself altogether 
extremely terrifying and unpleasant. 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 141 

When my friend investigated the matter 
further, she heard for the first time about 
the Planchette that had been left in a 
nursery cupboard, and also found that 
Pansy and her nurse had " been trying to 
write with it for fun." It was no fun for 
the poor little girl, for some months at least. 

The door having been opened in this 
ignorant and casual way, the old woman 
seems promptly to have walked in and to 
have done her best to make the poor child^s 
life a burden, owing to her unfortunate 
and hitherto unsuspected clairvoyant power. 

The mother, a very practical and sensible 
woman, did not waste time in fruitless re- 
grets. She heard of the Society for Psychical 
Research, and at once became a member, 
thinking she might in this way get some 
practical advice in dealing with the matter 
and releasing her little daughter from the 
painful and frightening experience. I 
think as a matter of fact that the relief 
came eventually either through private 
friends or through 110 St. Martinis Lane. 
Anyway, I have great pleasure in mention- 
ing in this connection the name of Mrs. 
Manx, who has been in England and 
whose absence is regretted by all who knew 
her. 



142 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

When Pansy's mother went to her, she at 
once described without the slightest sugges- 
tion, exactly the features and appearance of 
the haunting old woman. I cannot remem- 
ber whether she was also able to see why 
this special entity clung to the house. In 
any case, she gave some excellent and very 
disinterested advice as to the best means of 
getting rid of the " unwelcome guest." For 
when my friend suggested Mrs. Manx com- 
ing to the house and holding a stance the 
latter at once dissuaded her from any such 
course. ^^ DonH do anything of the kind/^ 
she said, ** you may attract other undesirable 
visitors whilst trying to get rid of this one.^* 
She then gave some simple instructions 
which turned out to be quite successful. 

My friend continues to live in the house, 
but neither she nor her daughter have ex- 
perienced any discomfort or undesirable 
visits from other than mundane personali- 
ties. 

As for Pansy, the last I heard of her was 
a year ago, when she was enjoying her first 
ball, and I am told she has grown into a 
very charming and pretty girl. 

So the *' wicked old woman '^ has merci- 
fully not been allowed to cast any perma- 
nent shadow on this bright young life. 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 143 

But matters might have been very differ- 
ent. If a sin-stained man or woman, rather 
than an innocent young girl, had been in 
question, what untold misery might have 
been the result of such a haunting presence I 
— a haunting directly due to the apparently 
innocent but premature and ignorant play- 
ing with forces whose powers and conditions 
were not understood, and could therefore 
not be guarded against. 

In addition to the initial and most obvi- 
ous danger in automatic writing, namely 
that it is one of the most subtle and yet 
easiest ways in which a door may be opened 
and left unguarded for the entrance of un- 
desirable spirit visitors, there are many 
minor dangers on the moral plane associ- 
ated with any indiscreet use of this alluring 
phenomenon. 

In the first place we may give up too 
much of our time to it, and thus neglect 
more immediate duties, besides losing all 
taste for them. Exactly the same argument 
might be used in regard to excessive novel- 
reading, and I am quite willing to admit 
this. Our sceptical friends would probably 
say there was quite as much fiction in one 
case as the other ! 

Then again automatic writing, unless we 



144 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

are very much on our guard, may minister 
greatly to our natural vanity. Like attracts 
like, and people with a well-developed bump 
of vanity on this plane are apt to attract 
those of the same class behind the veil. I 
am thankful to say that my most frequent 
correspondents from the other side are of 
rather robust constitution, and more apt to 
give me salutary rebukes than to prophesy 
smooth things ; but we all need to be on 
our guard in this respect. 

We get so many buffets in this world, 
unless we are extremely rich or excessively 
dense. In the first case nobody dares to tell 
us the truth about ourselves — in the second 
case we don't care '' a button " if they do ! 
But most of us belong to neither extreme, 
and may very reasonably think that after 
getting some hard raps down here, our un- 
seen friends might at least put us on good 
terms with ourselves again — just as a wor- 
ried business man, who may have been 
lectured in his office, expects a little sooth- 
ing syrup at home, administered by an ad- 
miring wife and family. 

This is all right within due limits, but 
when we are told that all our views and 
arguments are in the main true, and those 
of our neighbors mistaken, so far as they 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 145 

diverge from our own — or that a great mis- 
sion is laid upon us as to which we alone 
are competent, and for which the world has 
been waiting for many hundreds of years, 
then I think we ought to recognize the 
danger-signals and *' go slow." 

I know it is very difficult, because often 
these messages may be perfectly sincere 
without being perfectly correct. Apart 
from the question of deceiving entities, we 
naturally attract to us those who are in af- 
finity with us or have a strong affection for 
us. Probably they often do think we are 
right in this or that opinion or action. It 
does not follow that their view is correct, 
but one often hears people backing up their 
own prejudices or actions by telling you of 
the beautiful messages they have received 
on the subject ; as though that were a final 
appeal. 

So long as we are prepared to keep our 
automatic script within reasonable bounds 
and not allow it to encroach unduly upon 
other duties — so long as we are willing to 
receive blame as well as praise if need be — 
to hold our judgment in suspense and re- 
ceive these communications as we should 
receive those from esteemed friends on earth 
— and most important of all, so long as we 



146 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

keep our independence of action intact, and 
don't learn to run to the unseen friends for 
every small or great decision in life ; so 
long we may no doubt exercise our gift 
without abusing it. 

But all this is a rather large order ! I 
wonder how many of us, automatic writers, 
can feel honestly convinced that we have 
filled in the contract satisfactorily ? 

There is another less pleasing possibility 
to contemplate, but one which I don't feel 
justified in ignoring completely, since it has 
been more than once brought under my 
personal notice. It is a temptation which 
so-called ^* religious people " occasionally 
fall into, that of thinking they are in- 
fluenced by the highest motives instead of 
the lowest ones, and using their religion or 
their psychic gifts to confound or humiliate 
their enemies — as Bishop Creighton used to 
say to some of his obstinate clergy, who re- 
fused to submit on points really not vital : 
*' A great deal that you call conscience iSj in 
reality, temper. ^^ I have seen the germ of 
this subtle temptation to spiritual priggish- 
ness and a desire to score off any one who 
has offended them, in quite small children. 
I have heard one little girl say to another 
severely, " You are a very naughty little girl, 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 147 

and all I can do is to pray for you.** This is 
one of my earliest childish reminiscences, 
and I am always devoutly thankful to have 
been the " naughty little girl " upon that oc- 
casion I 

Christian Scientists, in the early stages 
of their initiation into what one might po- 
litely call the technical terms of the sect, 
are apt to say to any one who disagrees 
with them or annoys them, ** This just 
shows that you are still in mortal mind.'^ 

And so I am afraid sometimes we may 
use our automatic script, quite uncon- 
sciously, in the same way, to score off our 
enemies or to put ourselves in a superior 
spiritual position with regard to them. It 
may be objected that in such case it would 
prove that the writing was simply self-sug- 
gestion — not necessarily, I think — I have 
long felt convinced that many of our un- 
kind thoughts of our neighbors are really 
thrust upon us from outside. 

If we open the door even an inch or two 
by a passing criticism, or perhaps a satirical 
remark upon an acquaintance, how quickly 
a rush of very unkind thoughts will often 
dash in and almost frighten us with the 
strength of the flood ! If we are wise we 
shall stem it at once, by trying to say or 



14:8 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

think something kindly of them. All of 
us who have any introspective faculty at 
all, must be aware of the truth of my words. 
Then is it difficult to realize that these un- 
seen tempters may manipulate our pens 
more easily than our brains ; especially 
when we have made ourselves intentionally 
passive and receptive, as in automatic 
writing ? 

As a ^^ pendant ^^ to the "mortal mind" 
illustration, as regards Christian Scientists, 
I will give a true experience of my own as 
regards automatic writers. 

Some years ago a lady who happened to 
be staying in the same house with me, and 
who was an acquaintance of some years' 
standing but not an intimate friend, took 
occasion to come into a morning-room 
where I was sitting alone a few days after 
my arrival. I must tell you, by the by, 
that this lady had some psychic develop- 
ment of rather an elementary nature. 

She brought a square MS. copy-book with 
her and a pencil, and told me at once (with- 
out any encouragement on my part) that 
she had just received an automatic message 
to the effect that I was obsessed by a very 
undesirable spirit who had followed me from 
India, I think, and that her spirit-friends 



AUTOIVIATIC WRITING 149 

were greatly perturbed as to the effect my 
presence might have upon her, under such 
painful and undesirable conditions. 

Now I knew that this lady was slightly 
piqued by my not having cultivated her ac- 
quaintance more energetically, and it seemed 
to me a very obvious, although probably 
really unconscious way of taking a mild re- 
venge, in which it is quite possible that she 
may have had cooperation from the other 
side. 

She w^as quite kindly willing to put her 
automatic gift at my disposal, and doubtless 
we should have had sheets of details had I 
been equally willing to respond, or in any 
way impressed by the announcement. As 
it was, I laughed good-naturedly and said 
quite pleasantly, *' To-morrow evening, Mrs. 
X., I shall find out where you are, and come 
in with a big MS. book of my automatic 
writing, and I expect you will find you are 
the victim of several obsessing spirits, and 
that I have been ordered to leave the house 
and your company at once ! '^ 

She took the hint and I heard no more 
about that undesirable spirit who had fol- 
lowed me from India. This again I con- 
sider may be classed as an abuse of auto- 
matic script. In any case we have no right 



150 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

to forget our manners and insist upon 
thrusting automatic messages upon acquaint- 
ances who have not asked for them. 

There is an unwritten law in all such 
matters, and one of the first rules should be 
that we give nobody the benefit of our auto- 
matic script about them, unless they have 
requested this favor at our hands ! Sec- 
ondly, that we should consider it a point of 
honor not to attempt in this way to tap the 
subliminal consciousness of a friend or an 
acquaintance (far less of an enemy) with 
the same reservation and with the additional 
safeguard which Mr. W. T. Stead quite 
rightly imposed upon himself, namely to 
send any such script at once to the person 
concerned, even where it has been obtained 
by that person's express wish and permission. 

My readers may justly accuse me of speak- 
ing, so far, only of the abuse of automatic 
writing. How about the other portion of 
my subject? 

With the sad ca«e before my eyes, to 
which I have referred in another chapter, 
where a young and gifted woman has ap- 
parently destroyed her health and domestic 
happiness by ill-advised and unreasoning 
faith in the entities purporting to communi- 
cate with her through her own hand in au- 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 151 

tomatic script, is it any wonder that the 
abuse should loom largest in my mental 
horizon ? 

But this is not the only reason for my de- 
voting the larger part of my chapter to the 
darker side of the subject. The uses of au- 
tomatic writing are so obvious and so nu- 
merous that there is not the slightest fear of 
their being overlooked. Too many grateful 
people are ready to testify to the help and 
comfort and happiness and consolation they 
have received through the wise and discreet 
exercise of the gift. The difficulty is not in 
realizing the use but in realizing the pos- 
sible and very probable abuse of it, where a 
wise reserve and discretion are not observed. 

To many these dangers have not become 
apparent, because they have instinctively 
guarded themselves or have been wisely 
guarded, as in my own case, where for five 
years my spirit-friends themselves begged 
me to leave the subject alone, until suffi- 
ciently advanced to take it up without 
danger to myself and others. 

There is just one other small danger to 
which I have not yet referred, but which 
has come quite lately under my immediate 
and personal experience. 

I refer to the constantly increasing tend- 



152 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

ency to use this means of attempting to 
scan our own past lives and still more eagerly 
the past lives of our neighbors. In these 
days, most progressive minds have a tenta- 
tive and modified belief in a sort of condi- 
tional reincarnation, such as that held by 
Mr. C. C. Massey, and extremely well de- 
fined by him in the posthumous papers 
edited so excellently by Professor W. R. 
Barrett, F. R. S. 

We are all inclined to be curious about 
our *' past lives," and to welcome any clair- 
voyant visions which assign to us important 
and interesting " parts '' when we last trod 
this earthly stage. 

Probably ninety per cent, or even more 
of such announcements are absolutely void 
of even the most fragile foundation in truth. 
It is far wiser to wait until insistent mem- 
ories awake in our own brains, and even 
these must be taken with many grains of 
salt when they come spontaneously, for self- 
suggestion would have to be tabulated as 
well as outside hypnotic suggestion from 
the thoughts of others with whom we are 
in contact. Proud and loving parents of a 
metaphysical turn, would be bound to think 
their own children had played very impor- 
tant parts in previous lives, and would prob- 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 163 

ably impress these ideas mentally upon 
their offspring. All this, however, does not 
affect the subject of my chapter. What is 
really to be deprecated is a growing tendency 
to gain supposed information as to the past 
lives of our friends, and this I think is 
palpably unfair, although I am sure it has 
been done, in many cases, without the 
slightest notion of going beyond legitimate 
experiment. 

You may receive the most appalling state- 
ments concerning the past lives of your 
neighbors and friends. They are perfectly 
powerless in your automatic hands, when 
once this automatic-vivisection game begins. 
It can have no limits, within the limits of 
the writer's imagination, and as it is obvi- 
ously impossible to refute such statements 
or to start a libel case, in which the Pros- 
ecutor would have to be your own previous 
personality (perhaps several hundred years 
old), there is nothing for it but to beg your 
intelligent experimental friends to unpin 
you from the psycho-dissecting table and 
turn their attention elsewhere. 

Another grave possibility strikes me in 
this respect. We will suppose that a per- 
fectly honorable and well-intentioned gen- 
tleman, interested in psychology and with 



154 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

some gift of automatic script, receives a 
message about your supposed past incarna- 
tions in which, after the manner of such 
messages, you may be quite sure some dark 
and terrible insinuations will be made — 
probably against your moral character. By 
chance, some guest staying in the house sees 
the message or at any rate hears about it. 
Probably he or she has never set eyes upon 
you, but the suggestion of immorality — let 
us ssiy-^and the name connected with itj re- 
main in the memory. In these sensational 
days this is quite sufficient to start the 
" white hare." People have no time to 
listen perfectly to anything nowadays ; far 
less to remember it accurately. " Surely I 
heard something very doubtful about Mrs, So- 
and-so when I was in Cheltenham f — a divorce 
case or something of that kind — anyway , Fm 
positive I heard she had been the means of 
separating a man from his wife, etc., etc^ 
The guest in question might quite con- 
ceivably have forgotten the circumstances 
and remembered only the scandal, little 
dreaming that it was all connected with a 
supposed previous incarnation of the poor 
victim. 

This sounds an exaggeration, but I am 
absolutely convinced that it is a possibility. 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 155 

In any case I think it is wiser not to tap 
the supposed previous incarnations of our 
friends, unless at their special request. Per- 
sonally, I should refuse to do it, even then. 

We are all walking just now amongst a 
good deal of very fragile china, and need to 
be very careful to avoid breakage. 

And now to turn to the brighter side of 
the picture. Automatic writing within 
reasonable and sane conditions needs no 
further justification than the fact that Spirit 
Teachings^ by the late Stainton Moses (M. A. 
Oxon.), now in its sixth edition, was received 
in this manner. 

I do not include the marvellous works of 
that grand seer and divine philosopher, 
Andrew Jackson Davis, simply because I 
believe his inspired writings came from 
trance utterances, immediately taken down 
by a secretary on the spot, in which case 
they can hardly be included in our present 
subject. 

So far as private experiences go, I suppose 
every intelligent and well-balanced auto- 
matic writer can tell of happy instances 
where he or she has not only received per- 
sonal help and comfort, but has been able 
to convey this to others by the exercise of 
this gift. 



156 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

I have mentioned several cases of the 
kind in my own experience in my two last 
books, and need not refer to them again. 
Many people speak of automatic writing as 
if only silly and frivolous messages were 
received by this means. This is a great 
mistake. As Emerson has so truly said : 
*^ If we meet no godsj it is because we harbor 
nonej^ and if we meet only with silly and 
lying messages, it may be because we are 
not very wise, nor even perhaps very truth- 
ful, ourselves. 

But those who are not conversant at first- 
hand with automatic writing, are apt to re- 
peat this rather general statement, as though 
it were an axiomatic truth. 

Even so lately as a few years before the 
death of Mr. Frederic Myers, I remember 
his giving an address on psychic subjects 
at the Sesame Club, and in referring to 
automatic messages he said : *' I donH for a 
moment defend the substance of these messages. 
I quite admit the folly and triviality almost 
without exception of what comes in this way ; 
but the question of the source is still of interest 
to uSj whether the water that comes through 
these channels be clear or tainted.'*^ I remem- 
ber this the more readily, because an Ameri- 
can friend of mine, a very active old lady, 



AUTOMATIC WIUTING 157 

got up at once and indignantly refuted this 
statement, instancing my own messages as 
contradicting the truth of it. 

In connection with these latter and in fact 
with all automatic messages, Sir Oliver 
Lodge and many others have raised the 
very pertinent question of '' stained glass/' 
by which, of course, I mean the possible 
intrusion of the scribe's personal knowledge 
or prejudices and preconceptions upon the 
supposed communicating intelligence. 

No doubt we must alw^ays allow not only 
for the possibility but for the certain fact of 
such intrusion in greater or less degree, the 
amount of course varying in different 
writers, and at different stages of their 
development in this branch of psychic 
knowledge. Some coloring matter no doubt 
is bound to come in where the brain of the 
agent is used, and where the control of him 
or her is not absolute. The highest spirits 
object strongly to gaining this entire con- 
trol of their medium (except under very 
special circumstances), thinking that it 
weakens the individuality and tends to loss 
of self-reliance. Invading the personality to 
this extent is not generally considered desirable. 
We may get entirely false messages, of 
course, even where the complete control 



158 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

exists which renders the medium absolutely 
ignorant of the message conveyed ; but 
where the control is only partial — given 
through the conscious brain and not through 
the submerged part of the personality — it 
seems impossible that some coloring matter 
from the medium should not be assimilated. 
Sir Oliver Lodge raised another point in 
saying of some automatic script of mine 
that ** the ideas were not beyond my own range 
of thought.'^ 

We must of course be careful not to jump 
to the conclusion that what is not beyond the 
range of a certain brain must therefore of 
necessity have emanated from that brain 
alone. Where philosophical and theolog- 
ical subjects are in question, the only 
evidence worth anything would be where 
statements are made or ideas propounded, 
which are both directly contrary to the 
views and also out of the intellectual range 
of the writing medium. 

But where other matters are concerned, 
the question of range must be dropped in 
favor of corroboration of the evidence. 

For example, if an automatic script tells 
me that a friend of mine, greatly perplexed 
about her future plans, will quite unex- 
pectedly have an opportunity of going to 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 169 

India ; that she will make the voyage within 
eighteen months at the latest, and will 
marry a man whom she will meet at Simla 
during the following hot season, and if all 
this come to pass within a reasonable period, 
this automatic script is certainly not beyond 
the range of my intellectual capacity. It is 
equally certain that it is beyond the range 
of my normal powers as a prophet. 

Therefore it points to an intelligence 
guiding my pen, which is not normal to 
my ordinary personality, although of 
course, here as elsewhere, the theoretically 
omniscient subliminal may be trotted out, 
and harnessed up, and we may prefer a gal- 
lop round on this overridden steed to the 
more simple but less popular idea of com- 
munication from the excarnate. 

Direct writing is rather wide of my pres- 
ent subject. As most of you will know, the 
term refers to those instances where a blank 
sheet of paper is locked up, either with or 
without pen or pencil, and kept carefully 
under one person^s strict guardianship, and 
yet when opened is found to have been writ- 
ten upon. The paper may be locked away 
for several days and writing may yet be 
found upon it when opened after such an 
interval. 



160 PSYCHICAL SCIEXCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

This has been considered in times past 
the most absolute proof we can ever have of 
direct spirit presence — granted the bona fides 
of the investigator who locks up the paper 
and carries the key day and night upon his 
person. 

But now that we are daily finding out 
more of the wonders of our own living per- 
sonalities — their enormous range of being — 
their unlimited powers, comparatively 
speaking, as witnessed by clairvoyance, 
hypnotic experiments, and abnormal powers 
of action, perception, and endurance, it be- 
comes more and more difficult to draw any 
definite line between the capacities of those 
emancipated from the outer body, and of 
those still imprisoned, but daily emerging 
from the prison-house, even now and here, 
through the cultivation of hitherto un- 
dreamed-of powers of will and concentra- 
tion. 

How do we know that it is impossible for 
a highly evolved incarnate spirit to produce 
*' direct writing " through those finer forces 
which must be implicit in the evolutionary 
being, but not as yet brought forth into 
normal manifestation ? 

But this way madness lies ! 

Again we may develop one part of our 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 161 

entire consciousness abnormally, but at the 
expense of other and perhaps more im- 
mediately important parts of it. Hence the 
danger of books and pamphlets exhorting 
to this kind of self-culture. Many things 
are possible which are not expedient. These 
may be amongst them. 

As a wise old ancestress of mine said to 
me once in automatic script : " You are here 
to learn Balance, and that will not come 
through any abnormal development at the 
cost of atrophy of other equally, and often 
more, valuable qualities.*' Even messages 
from the discarnate may be paid for too 
heavily, if discretion does not go hand in 
hand with development. 

This may be an appropriate moment to 
mention a difficulty in automatic writing 
which I would not speak of earlier, as it 
cannot come under the heading of either a 
danger or an abuse of our subject. I can 
best illustrate it by an example. 

Some months ago Mr. Stead received 
some automatic script from an unknown 
correspondent — a lady — who said it pur- 
ported to come from Mr. Frederic Myers. 
There was nothing very startling in the 
communications, which were very sane and 
sensible, but in a style markedly differing 



162 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

from that of Mr. Myers. This, however, 
need not have presented any insurmount- 
able difficulty as regards evidence, had not 
the substance of the messages been so ac- 
curately and obviously in line, not only 
with theosophical conceptions in general, 
but with the modern Western theosophical 
framing of these conceptions, and even 
dogmas. It seemed extremely unlikely that 
if Mr. Myers had become a convert to The- 
osophy on the other side of the veil, that it 
should be this special blend. Of course it 
turned out that the lady scribe was herself 
a convinced modern Western Theosophist, 
and Mr. Myers' supposed statements as re- 
gards reincarnation were doubtless the 
coloring matter supplied by this fact. But 
an interesting message with regard to this 
script came through another and quite inde- 
pendent source. I give it for what it may 
be worth evidentially, but the idea conveyed 
is in any case suggestive : Another lady, 
also in supposed communication with Mr. 
Myers, gave the following message as to the 
former communication : 

" Yes, I did certainly try with Miss W., 
but the trouble is, that I can set the current 
going with her, but cannot sufficiently direct 
and control it. I know nothing about rein- 



AUTOMATIC WRITING 163 

carnation but often discuss it here with 
those who do hold the belief firmly. It is 
quite possible Miss W. took from my men- 
tality some of the remnants of these discussions 
still present with me." 

Probably Miss W.^s own preconceptions 
would involuntarily affect the question of 
which part of his latent mentality she 
pitched upon. This would then come 
through, as if it were adirect communication 
from F. W. H. Myers himself. 

So we see that the more we learn of these 
subjects the less we seem to know, and the 
more perplexing and therefore the more 
challenging they become ! 



CHAPTER X 

ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 

I HAVE been asked to write this chapter 
as a special plea against some crude and 
limited conceptions, or rather misconcep- 
tions, as regards the vast and undeniable 
differences in the varying lots into which 
Humanity is cast. 

I think the first and most flagrant of 
these is the very usual idea of the world at 
large and the almost universal idea of 
modern Theosophists in the Western World, 
that the more or less favorable earthly 
destiny of an individual is the inevitable 
outcome, not of his Karma (that we might 
all concede, if Karma is kept within its 
legitimate meaning), but of his previous 
good or evil deeds. If Karma is held to 
mean consequences, we must all agree that 
every fact or event has its cause as well as 
its consequence — in fact, its Past — Present 
— and Future. 

But the idea I wish to combat is one 
which I have heard propounded again and 
again, ad naiiseam, by otherwise intelligent 

164 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 165 

Theosophists and by other people as well ; 
namely, that happiness and prosperity in 
this life are the inevitable results, in exact 
measure, of an excellent life in a previous 
incarnation, and that suffering and poverty, 
with all their attendant consequences and 
miseries, demonstrate with equal precision 
that those who are condemned to suffering 
in this life, physical or mental, must have 
led very wicked lives when they were last 
incarnated. I am, for the moment, taking 
some phase of belief in reincarnation for 
granted, but many outside the charmed cir- 
cle of modern Theosophy seem to hold 
much the same idea ; only the " past life ** 
would in this case be limited to the earlier 
years of the present incarnation. 

No matter from what special camp the 
idea is promulgated, it has always struck 
me as such an exceedingly crude, childish 
and superficial judgment. Generalizations 
are of necessity always in error, but the 
measure of error would probably be de- 
cidedly less, if we generalized from the 
exact converse of this proposition. 

I have many theosophical friends, for 
whom I have both esteem and affection, and 
some of whom are decidedly above the 
average in intelligence. We have discussed 



166 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

this question frequently, but I have never 
succeeded in ousting them from what is 
surely a most superficial view of life, even 
as a mere question of personal experience. 

I remember once trying to bring the 
'* error in the sum " home to a very intelli- 
gent theosophical friend, by pointing out 
two brothers (both of whom she knew), the 
one extremely sympathetic and benevolent 
and spiritually advanced ; the other indis- 
putably selfish and material in his views 
and ideas, and certainly in a most elemen- 
tary spiritual stage. She knew enough 
about them to recognize the truth of the 
facts I have stated, and did not attempt to 
question them ; the illustration was too fla- 
grant for that. The former brother was 
crushed down all his life by physical and 
mental suffering, his best and brightest 
qualities suppressed by ill health and atro- 
phied by absence of opportunity. The other 
from cradle to grave had a life of excep- 
tional and almost abnormal prosperity, and 
was not sufficiently developed spiritually, 
to miss or regret in himself the absence of 
the higher nature of his relative. 

Even then, with the argument reduced to 
this one salient fact, under her very eyes, 
the " Karmic " hypnosis worked too strongly 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 167 

not to master her normal intelligence, and 
she answered feebly that perhaps the pros- 
perous man had been quite unselfish and a 
most charming and delightful and sympa- 
thetic person in his previous life I And this 
when the whole question was one of char- 
acteVy which we know means the slow accre- 
tion and development of years — probably of 
many centuries — for aught we know I 

Again we have to define what we mean 
by happiness and prosperity. A certain 
kind of both of these is obviously more 
likely to be found in unsympathetic and 
elementary natures, for the very sound rea- 
son that the less we feel for our neighbors 
and their calamities, the " better time " we 
are likely to have here. It is quite a mis- 
take to take for granted that extremely 
selfish people are always very unhappy and 
continually sufiFering from remorse on ac- 
count of their limitation. It is not so, and 
anybody who has had some experience of 
life, and has any critical and analytical 
faculty, knows this as a matter of course. 
Very selfish people are generally very ob- 
tuse, and therefore very comfortable in their 
personal judgments. It is always the other 
people who are to blame and who get in 
their way so unjustifiably I It is only a 



168 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

highly sensitive selfish person who is in the 
least danger of sufifering from remorse. I 
do not mean a physically highly sensitive 
person. That is only a usual form of sel- 
fishness itself I am referring to a highly 
sensitive person, mentally and spiritually 
speaking. As a rule, these latter are very 
seldom abnormally selfish. Therefore my 
argument holds good, I think, that the 
more selfish a person is, the more obtuse, 
and the less likely to be troubled by scruples 
or remorse. Such people as the man I have 
last described, are also apt to be extremely 
deficient in imagination ; another proof of 
the crude and elementary character. Here 
again he is spared much suffering, and al- 
though, no doubt, he loses much enjoy- 
ment, it is of a kind which he is not as yet 
sufficiently developed to experience, and 
therefore for him it has no existence — 
whereas a comfortable income and absence 
of cares and well-padded armchairs and 
broughams, or motor-cars, have a very real 
existence, to say nothing of other creature 
comforts or even intellectual luxuries, 
which money can obtain for such a one. 
It is, moreover, a mistake to suppose that a 
man may not be very obtuse morally and 
yet sufiSciently advanced intellectually to 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 169 

enjoy good music or good acting or good 
pictures or well-written books. 

Again, a very selfish man will often in- 
clude his wife in a sort of double-selfishness, 
and even his children, if they don't inter- 
fere too much with his comfort, which, 
under the circumstances, is not likely to 
happen. Selfish parents have proverbially 
devoted children, and vice versa, so here 
again we are confronted by a contradiction 
of the idea that the happiness and well- 
being of men and women here is in direct 
ratio to their deserts. 

Now given a thoroughly selfish person, 
with good digestion, a liver that works well, 
a conscience comfortably on terms with 
itself, and in addition a good income, good 
health to enjoy it, and an adoring wife and 
children who make him feel himself a sort 
of domestic hero, what more can be needed 
for '' happiness and prosperity," as these 
terms are generally understood ? I think 
the confusion of ideas as regards Karmic 
prosperity and Karmic misery has arisen 
from a confusion as to standards. Are we 
judging by the standards of this plane or of 
the next? It is necessary to settle this 
question rather definitely, for the two are 
very seldom compatible. I do not say neveTy 



170 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

because one or two of the most prosperous 
people I have known, judging by present 
Standards even, have also been the most 
spiritually-minded and the most sympa- 
thetic, but these have been but " one or 
two " amongst thousands of my acquaint- 
ances, and in their cases a healthful imagi- 
nation has been one of their most strongly 
marked characteristics. No character can 
be developed without suffering, but in these 
rare cases the suffering seems to have taken 
place elsewhere, even when we have the 
chance of tracing such exceptional lives 
from cradle to grave. 

I think it is Allan Kardec who suggests 
that every spirit upon earth has three cardi- 
nal incarnations : the first in favorable con- 
ditions, so that the youthful pilgrim through 
each planet should not be too much dis- 
couraged at the outset ; the second unfavor- 
able, as a test ; and the third dependent 
upon the use made of the intermediate ex- 
istence, and therefore either very unfortu- 
nate or extremely prosperous. This might 
help us to see how the rare lives I have 
referred to may come about. 

It has sometimes struck me that the 
history of Job, if intended, as has been 
claimed by mystics, as a history of the soul. 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 171 

seems certainly to point to some such possi- 
bility. His first estate was prosperous — the 
second stage a terrible test of faith and 
courage and resignation, which he came 
through with a fair amount of success ; and 
his last experience gave him back all his 
prosperity with much more added to it. 

Now I think it would be a great advan- 
tage to ourselves and decidedly a boon to 
our less fortunate neighbors, if we could 
give up this crude and superficial judgment, 
which a mistaken conception appears to 
have read into the overridden Karmic argu- 
ment. I think it must have been started 
by some opulent and materially prosperous 
devotees, who naturally would wish to 
justify their own pleasant destinies in the 
eyes of less prosperous friends and neigh- 
bors. Of course I am perfectly aware that 
no Western Theosophist upon earth would 
allow that he or she took the view I have 
here demonstrated. So many of us judge 
matters practically, from a point of view we 
should all condemn as quite foreign to us, 
theoretically. Not one of us is capable of 
casting the " first stone," so far as this little 
human foible is concerned ! 

I would only ask one question : If I have 
merely described a figment of my own im- 



172 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

agination, how does it happen that I have 
not met a single theosophical friend, with 
whom I have discussed the matter, who has 
not used some argument of the kind de- 
scribed? Yet my friends in this Society 
are certainly equal in intelligence to the 
average — if not beyond that mark. I should 
wish to repeat, however, most emphatically, 
that it is not only amongst Theosophists 
that some misconception of the kind exists ; 
but I do think that a misconception of the 
word Karma (practically — not theoretically) 
has given some fresh impetus to the mis- 
conception of true standards. 

I may quote in support of my contention 
that even such an advanced and wide- 
minded writer as M. Edouard Schure says, 
in speaking of the light thrown by the doc- 
trine of reincarnation on " the inequality of 
human conditions " ; 

" The variety of souls, of conditions, of 
destinies, can only be justified by a plurality 
of lives and by the doctrine of reincarna- 
tion. If man is born on this earth for 
the first time, how can you explain the 
numberless evils with which a blind Fate 
seems sometimes to overwhelm him ? How 
can you admit that there is eternal justice, 
since some are born into conditions which 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 173 

relentlessly bring with them misery and 
humiliation, whilst others are born fortu- 
nate and live happily ? The differences in 
condition result from an unequal use made of 
the free will in preceding lives^ whilst intellect- 
ual differences result from different stages of 
evolution.^* 

He goes on to say : 

" The earth resembles a ship, and all of 
us who inhabit it are the travellers, who 
come from distant countries, and disperse at 
different stages, to all points of the horizon/' 

Finally : '* The doctrine of reincarnation 
gives a reason compatible with justice and eter- 
nal logicy for the most appalling evils as ivell as 
for the most enviable joys " (of human beings). 

We shall all agree with what Monsieur 
Schur6 says about the reason for intellectual 
differences, and probably also all appreciate 
his simile of the earth as a ship, distributing 
her crew to all quarters of the horizon, after 
voyages of varying length. But the first 
and the last paragraphs of my quotations 
from him suggest unmistakably the very 
point I am trying to make. Here again the 
standard of happiness as the antithesis of 
misery, is a standard of material happiness 
as contrasted with material misery. This is 
proved by his speaking of our seeing and 



174 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

envying one lot, and seeing and deploring 
the other. Now the things that are seen are 
decidedly " temporal," because material. 

I think this proves my point, that the 
taking of this temporal standard is a mis- 
conception into which many of our most 
remarkable writers and teachers are apt to 
fall, when attempting to justify the ways of 
Providence via reincarnation. It seems to 
me it would be better to say boldly, "There 
are two standards for success and two stand- 
ards for happiness — the standard of this 
present plane and the standard of eternal 
truth, or as much of it as we shall be able to 
grasp in the next round of our spiral. Al- 
though for a time and in rare cases these 
standards may appear to us to be superim- 
posed, they are in reality entirely distinct, 
and it is for us to make up our minds which 
one we are using, in speaking of the cruelty 
and misery of our fate." " Which world are 
you booked for ? " as I heard a very young 
girl say once to an elderly and amused 
man, who had been speaking of the expe- 
diency or inexpediency of some particular 
course of action. " Ah ! that depends entirely 
upon which world you are boohed for ^^^ said in- 
nocent Fifteen, in a cheerful, practical tone I 
This exactly expresses what I mean. 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 175 

If we could see with the ** eyes of the soul/' 
we should be more likely to judge correctly, 
and then perhaps from (what Schure him- 
self calls) *' la vue d'en haut/^ we might see 
that the " miserable lots " are more really 
enviable than more *^ prosperous '' ones. 
They may even be much happier, judged by 
the real things of life ; for happiness which 
comes from a plus of prosperity and comfort, 
or even of intellectual enjoyment alone, can- 
not weigh in the scale with the smallest true 
spiritual emotion, but (barring the intellect- 
ual) finds its ultimate in the pig and the 
trough ; even though the trough be gilded 
and the pig a very refined type of animal, and 
exceedingly faddy and fastidious in his 
tastes. 

When a medium in trance (Mrs. Howarth 
by name) told me once of a previous incar- 
nation of mine, she added, " but your pres- 
ent one is far more favorable.'^ " Far less 
favorable," I hastened to assure her, " so far 
as money and social position are concerned." 
" What do we care for that f " said the trance 
control in a tone of impatient contempt. 
*' It is far more favorable for spiritual develop- 
mentj and that is the only thing you need trouble 
about, ^^ 

It always seems to me that a public school 



176 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

(as Mr. C. C. Massey points out) or a garden, 
gives us our best symbols for the education 
and development of the soul, under earth 
conditions. 

I have spoken of the former already in 
Do the Dead Depart Here also we find 
that the hardest lessons (the hardest lots) 
are given to the more advanced scholars. 
In the garden symbol we have the same 
significant fact taught us in the pruning 
process, which comes only at a certain stage 
in the plant's or tree's development. It is 
"the branch that hear eth fruit that is fit for 
purging." All this seems to me so much 
wiser and truer than any such crudity as 
attempting to explain present earthly draw- 
backs by past earthly sins. 

We have indeed a famous instance of the 
latter process being reproved in the well- 
known words of Scripture tradition, 
*' Neither did this man sin nor his father,^' 

Surely Christ came to show us a *' more 
excellent way " — how to escape from this 
wheel of rebirths into the glorious liberty 
of the sons of God ; no longer the slaves of 
matter? This escape, however, does not 
come (as some of us have been erroneously 
taught) by an act of faith in repeating cer- 
tain formulae, but by being made partakers 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 171 

of His Blood ;i, e.y by sharing His Life — the 
life of the spiritual sonship. 

Surely this is the inner truth of the outer 
symbol in our service of the Holy Com- 
munion ? We " drink His Blood " in token 
of our wish to share (however feebly) in His 
Life. Blood is the symbol of physical life, 
and therefore used by *' correspondence " as 
the symbol of spiritual life. 

All this does not for a moment preclude 
the teaching of the very salutary lesson that 
** who breaks — pays " in the spiritual as in 
the physical world. I don't think an 
honorable and generous soul would wish to 
be " let off" trying to make amends, where 
others have suffered through his fault, 
especially where the fault or *' sin " has 
been consciously committed? That seems 
to me as dishonorable and wanting in self- 
respect as to wish to be " let off" the money 
debts that we have contracted. 

But I do earnestly believe that such a 
flood of spiritual apprehension may come 
through even a poor attempt to share the 
Christ life (and this apart from any labels), 
that the soul may be freed from these lower 
conditions and allowed to " work out its 
salvation,'* and even *' to pay its debts '* 
from a higher and probably more effectual 



1Y8 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

plane. I only throw this out as a sugges- 
tion to those who feel forced — unwillingly 
— to accept some form of the reincarnation 
doctrine. It is only reasonable to suppose 
that we might be more helpful to others 
(whether we have injured them here or not) 
from a more ethereal sphere, should our 
spirits be sufficiently developed otherwise, to 
function from there. 

As to the law of consequences and com- 
pensation per sey I remember an interesting 
discussion in a country-house between my 
old friend Judge Forbes and Dr. Richard 
Hodgson on the subject. The Judge stig- 
matized it as " a horrible idea,'^ and from 
his earlier theological training was inclined 
to trust to the efficacy of" Christ's sacrifice " 
for blotting out not only our sins, but their 
results. 

Dr. Hodgson threw back his head with a de- 
lightful gesture of confidence in the Supreme 
Will, and said, " But it is splendid to feel you 
have to pay for everything — of course you 
must ! That is just the beauty of it ! How 
else are you going to learn to do better f " 

This absolute confidence in the love and 
wisdom of the Father's training, seemed to 
me the most truly religious attitude to which 
any of us can attain. 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 179 

St. Paul, in his famous words, ^* There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus," is constrained to 
add at once, '^ who walk not after the flesh hut 
after the spirit.^ ^ This gives us the whole 
*' Process of Christ," as it has been called. 
It is the '* walking after the spirit, and not 
after the flesh " which removes the con- 
demnation, and St. Paul identifies this as a 
necessary result of the mystic " being in 
Christ " and sharing His life. These words, 
with their mystic meaning, are far more 
convincing than the carefully reasoned out 
passage from Romans iii. 25 to Romans 
iv. 6. 

As regards St. Paul, we have always to 
remember two facts : First, that he brought 
all his power of logic to bear upon any prop- 
osition that seemed expedient, in combat- 
ing an opposite error. 

In this latter case he is obviously combat- 
ing the idea that spiritual growth can come 
about through the mere materialistic keep- 
ing of the Mosaic Law — " the deeds of the 
law " as he calls it. 

Secondly, St. Paul himself always tried 
to the best of his ability to distinguish be- 
tween that which appeared to him to be 
direct inspiration and other parts of his 



180 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

teaching. He is very tentative as to the 
latter ; so I think we are at liberty to sup- 
pose that his eagerness to press home one 
side of a truth may sometimes have outrun 
his spiritual insight. 

For St. Paul must have known as well as 
anybody else that true faith and " good 
works " are but two sides of the same 
shield. Faith cannot exist without works, 
any more than a well-grown, healthy child 
can exist without moving its arms and legs. 
These movements will be in proportion to 
its vitality. St. James endorses this when 
he tells us that " Faith without works is 
dead, being alone " (marginal rendering 
''by itself"). 

In all these matters it is, as usual, the 
letter that killeth — the spirit that maketh 
alive. 

And now I think I had better finish this 
chapter by a sincere apology for poaching 
upon what are usually considered clerical 
** preserves." 

All the same, I think, it would be better 
for man}^ of us if we tried to air these diffi- 
cult questions occasionally in our own back- 
yards, instead of looking upon them as the 
exclusive right of the clergy — to be taken 
or left — in church. As a matter of fact we 



ON SOME MISCONCEPTIONS 181 

must think them out for ourselves — if at 
all I No one can do our thinking for us. 

I merely note down my own thoughts 
without the slightest wish to impose them 
upon others. Many will disagree and per- 
haps more will disapprove. But some may 
be at a similar point of view. 

In a world where, as Mons. Schure says, 
" we are all travellers on the same ship for 
the time being, but hailing from different 
and far-distant countries, and dispersing at 
different stages on all points of the horizon," 
this is surely the most that any of us can 
expect. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 

This chapter differs slightly from the 
others in this book, in being addressed 
primarily to those who have already de- 
voted some time and study to modern 
psychical research. I hope, however, that 
it may carry some suggestive ideas to read- 
ers outside this circle ; even if at first sight 
it should strike them as fanciful. 

As we have said before, if some men had 
not been capable of scientific imagination, 
we should be much nearer the dark ages in 
civilization than at present. Imagination 
in this respect implies inductive hypotheses 
founded on facts. The inductive process is 
the only process possible for finite beings. 
Therefore we are entirely justified in hold- 
ing an inductive hypothesis so long as it is 
founded on some /ad, and not merely hang- 
ing like Mohammed's coffin, 'twixt earth 
and sky. Now surely we may consider the 
scientific conception of ether as having a 
basis in fact ? although the cleverest scien- 
tist cannot tell you what ether is, and the 

182 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 18S 

name itself is of course purely arbitrary. 
He simply knows there must be some finer 
medium which interpenetrates all matter as 
we perceive it ; which is imponderable, in- 
visible but ubiquitous ; since it has become 
a necessary assumption in regard to all 
phenomena of the visible universe, inclu- 
ding Nature's finer forces, such as light, heat 
and electricity. These are now assumed to 
be the resultants of vibrations in this in- 
visible but omnipresent medium. Electric- 
ity, as the highest and most mysterious 
manifestation which we yet know, has been 
spoken of as the cradle of physical matter, 
and even as the Garment of God. The 
medium through which these electric vibra- 
tions of intense and inconceivable frequency 
act, is postulated by modern science as 
etheric, in distinction to atmospheric. 

Taking the word Etheric therefore with 
these limitations as an x of which we know 
little beyond the necessity for its invisible 
presence, I think it may be interesting to 
put down a few thoughts and suggestions 
on the subject, both from the point of view 
of ancient religions and still more of 
modern psychical phenomena. 

We have seen that, as the true basis, i. 6., 
the esoteric basis, of all great religions, we 



184 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

find the same few and simple truths — simple 
in their various modes of presentation, but 
gigantic in their implications. Esoteric 
Christianity has been practically lost to us 
since the second century, owing to a variety 
of obvious circumstances ; but it is now be- 
ing restored by the researches of earnest and 
reverent and capable scholars and thinkers. 
Here again we find at its roots the very 
same universal truths. 

The Unity of the Godhead (always be- 
lieved in by the adepts of all religions in 
their varying manifestations) — the Word, 
made flesh, through being first made light 
— the eternal co-existent principles of the 
Deity, of which the numerous '* gods " of 
the ancients typified only the powers, forces 
and various manifestations of the one 
Divinity ; so long as these ancient religions 
remained uncorrupted by the usual incur- 
sions of materialistic thought upon esoteric 
conceptions. 

But of all the inner and mystic teachings, 
none is so clear, so all-pervading, so continu- 
ally insisted upon in every true initiation as 
this of the *' Verbe lumiere " as it is called 
in French. 

Amongst the Hindus we find the same 
truth pervading all the traditions of Krishna 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 185 

and of Devaki, his virgin mother. He is 
struck to the earth by a lightning flash after 
the death of Vasichta, and in a kind of 
magnetic trance sees his mother bathed in 
this sublime light, which radiates out from 
her and embraces him also, in the celestial 
spheres. We hear of it as the " Light of 
Osiris." It is the '' Veil of Isis '' in Egypt 
or of Persephone in Greece, behind which 
are woven the souls of all things living. It 
is made manifest to Hermes in his cele- 
brated vision, as the '' Divine Word of 
Light." It is the " Celestial Fire " of the 
Orphic mysteries and the " Light of Dionys- 
ius," in that aspect in which he is spoken 
of as the Son of Zeus. The writer of the 
first chapter of Genesis clearly refers to it 
as the light of the creative word, which was 
divided from the darkness and preceded by 
three *' days," or stages of evolution, the 
** creation " of the physical lights of sun, 
moon and stars. 

Now this universal knowledge of some 
divine, primeval light, or the Word of God 
in manifestation, must have clothed itself 
in some sort of " body," simply because the 
moment an idea enters our brain or emerges 
in it, it becomes clothed upon by our con- 
sciousness. 



186 PSYCHICAL SCIEls^CE AND CHRISTIANITY 

It seems a justifiable supposition that this 
outer manifestation, of winch our Thought 
is the inward expression and correspondence, 
may be the mysterious Ether to which 
modern Scientists have been driven, in order 
to make the physical universe comprehen- 
sible and to bring some sort of order into 
that which would otherwise be mental 
chaos? 

For Forces and manifestations must have 
a cause and a medium through which to 
manifest, and since Science has discovered 
that this medium has infinite tenuity, but 
is neither visible nor ponderable, then it 
must be conceived of as invisible and im- 
ponderable: . Here in fact we step on to the 
Bridge of Ether — the bridge between physical 
matter and force — between the visible and 
the invisible in the Higher Physics. 

The question is. Do we know anything 
from a phenomenal point of view of this so- 
called ether, or is it a mere scientific con- 
ception, as the matrix of light, heat and 
electricity ? I think we do know something 
— those of us at least who have studied ex- 
perimental psychology. This is just where 
my warning comes in, that I am writing 
this chapter from the point of view of a 
convinced and experimental psychical re- 



s^ 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 18Y 

searcher, but with no wish to dogmatize as 
to the supposed intelligences who may be 
manipulating the etheric substance. Some 
convinced researchers limit this intelligence 
to the abnormally developed latent powers 
of the incarnate individual ; others extend 
this intelligence to the individualities of the 
discarnate. This fact need not affect our 
present discussion, because both classes 
practically admit the truth of the phenom- 
ena, and we are just now mainly concerned 
in discussing the channel through which 
these are made manifest. 

The ancients, in Egypt and Persia alike, 
worshipped, under the symbol of the visible 
sun, this invisible light proceeding from the 
Unity in Manifestation. It is interesting to 
realize that the dernier cri of the modern ad- 
vanced Scientist is the discovery of the light 
rays emanating not only from radium but 
from ever}^ atom of physical matter, and 
most obviously from that enormous congeries 
of atoms of which the human body is com- 
posed. 

I am aware that Sir William Crookes has 
not yet given in his adhesion to the truth 
of the N-rays, but this doubtless arises from 
the fact that he cannot yet see them for him- 
self, and very wisely refuses to take them 




188 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

on trust. But we all know the apparently 
miraculous extent to which even purely 
physical sight can be trained, in the case of 
experts. The moment the higher physical 
light is developed in a sufficient number of 
responsible and dependable men and women 
(this number is daily increasing), it will be- 
come a simple matter of evidence. Even 
now it is quite possible to test the bona fides 
of various clairvoyants, for it is not only as- 
serted that each one of us is surrounded by 
an atmosphere of *' Light," but that the 
amount and the colors differ according to our 
physical and mental states. Therefore if 
half a dozen clairvoyants, susceptible to 
auras, as they are called, are brought succes- 
sively in contact with the same stranger, 
and of course debarred from meeting each 
other, and if they all describe independently 
the same colors and the same proportions of 
each color round this individual, we have 
at least a prima facie piece of evidence 
in favor of something more than coinci- 
dence. 

Now this light — allowing that it is an 
invisible fact — cannot be atmospheric light, 
or it would be visible to all of us. 

So I put this down as one little stone in 
my Bridge of Ether. All direct clairvoy- 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 189 

aiice (by which I mean where thought-read- 
ing is eliminated) must mean actually seem^ 
the scenes so accurately described, and such 
sight would require a non-physical channel 
or medium. Please understand that when 
I use the word physical, it is to distinguish 
it from the higher physical, which latter is 
also, of course, matter of some kind. We 
cannot speak of any substance as immate- 
rial, until we know a great deal more about 
matter per se than at present. The whole 
scientific conception of matter has been 
shaken up in the kaleidoscope of modern 
scientific discoveries. What then can out- 
siders dare to say upon the subject ? 

From the psychic point of view, we do 
know something about the etheric body or 
astral body, because it has been seen, not 
only as the double of an incarnate individ- 
ual, again and again, but by many inde- 
pendent witnesses, as being drawn out of 
the physical body, through the eyes, ears, 
mouth and nose, as a sort of gray misty rep- 
lica of the latter. 

I have spoken of direct clairvoyance, im- 
plying sight which would need a non- 
physical channel or medium, and have for 
the moment excluded thought transference, 
in order to distinguish true clairvoyance 



190 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

from that which should be more accurately 
termed '* thought-reading.'* 

But this latter phenomenon is one of 
which we do not understand the conditions 
in the slightest degree, although we toss the 
phrase about so carelessly, and certainly 
imply that we know all about it when we 
use it as a missile to silence a credulous ad- 
versary in argument. 

We know nothing about thought trans- 
ference, except that it sometimes takes place 
beyond any possible limits of coincidence. 
But we do not understand how it takes place, 
and talking in a cheerfully vague way 
about *' brain-waves '* does not elucidate the 
matter. In Hans Andersen's delightful 
story of the Emperor^s New Clothes^ there was 
only one man (or was it a boy ?) bold enough 
to say that he had not any clothes at all — 
new or old ! In the same way we seem all 
to be tongue-tied when any convinced 
thought-reading maniac hurls Thomson Jay 
Hudson at our defenseless heads ! Why 
don't we challenge him to prove by demon- 
stration the unlimited, unconditional, and 
ominiscient thought-reading theory as cov- 
ering all facts? I suppose we are paralyzed 
or hypnotized by sheer force of brazen as- 
sertion I 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 191 

All honor to Dr. Hyslop for bravely as- 
serting that he, at least, challenges the Em- 
peror's New Clothes^ and won't join in the 
pseon of praise and adulation over them. 
Thought transference is an undoubted fact, 
but its mantle is not as wide as Charity, 
and, moreover, we know nothing at all about 
the conditions through which it occurs. 

So I am quite justified in assuming for 
the moment that the process, whatever it 
may be, takes place, as wireless telegraphy 
does, in the medium we have elected to call 
Etheric. 

Experiments have been made from time 
to time with reference to photographing the 
Double or Astral of a living person, at a 
considerable distance from the agent, and 
some of these have been very successful. 
Where private individuals, using their own 
photographic apparatus without outside as- 
sistance, have procured these results, they 
must, at least, be entirely satisfactory to 
those who are engaged in the experiments, 
and it is to be hoped that more and more 
people will be induced to devote some 
leisure to this important branch of psychical 
research. It will certainly need persever- 
ance, but the results may be eminently suc- 
cessful, and it is surely as well worth while 



192 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AXD CHRISTIANITY 

to spend time and strength over this as over 
any other scientific study ? It is only by 
becoming our oivn photographers that we can 
eliminate the elements of doubt and dis- 
trust with which we naturally approach the 
*' spirit photographs " of a professional pho- 
tographer and medium. 

This doubt and distrust are, as I know 
by personal experience, often unnecessary 
and misplaced, but as they exist and are a 
needful corrective of over-credulity, it is 
well to take the only sensible means of dis- 
pelling them. Our standard of criticism is, 
of course, far more severe when turned upon 
the efforts of our neighbors than upon our 
own ! This fact has come out rather stri- 
kingly during the last few months in some 
very suggestive cases. It simply means 
that we are all very human — even psychical 
researchers ! 

Talking of private spirit photographs, I 
am reminded of an interesting incident 
which occurred a few years ago, and which 
was told me by my brother and his wife, 
both of whom are convinced sceptics. 

They were staying in a country-house in 
Dorsetshire, where they met a Captain and 
Mrs. Northcote (I have changed the name), 
who had just arrived there from another 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 193 

country-house in Somersetshire. Captain 
Northcote was in the Rifle Brigade, and he 
and his wife were both bitten by the photo- 
graphing mania so prevalent a few years 
ago. The Somersetshire house possessed a 
very beautiful old terrace in front of it, and 
this officer and his wife were both anxious 
to take photographs of it before they went 
away. Armed with their kodaks, they se- 
lected a good point of view therefore with 
this object. When Mrs. Northcote's films 
were developed, the terrace appeared per- 
fectly normal and just as it had been when 
they saw it, but on each of the Captain^s 
films the figure of a woman appeared on the 
terrace, although no living woman had been 
there except his wife. Greatly astonished, 
other photographs were taken with a simi- 
lar result. Finally, Captain Northcote sug- 
gested that when his wife took the next 
photograph, he should place his hand on 
her arm or wrist, and under these condi- 
tions the woman's figure again appeared ! I 
do not know if any history connected with 
her was ever discovered, but the story is a 
fact, and was told by Captain and Mrs. 
Northcote to my brother just after its oc- 
currence. 

There appears to be certainly some irn- 



194: PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

pregnation of the camera by the medium- 
istic photographer, conscious or unconscious, 
and which I trust and believe Mr. Myers 
will now pardon me for suggesting might 
be of a magnetic nature. He was rather 
angry with me once for using this word, 
and declared it was most unscientific. I 
quite see his point, but we must use some 
term to express that of which we can see the 
effects without knowledge of the cause. 

Anyway, this undoubted fact may ac- 
count for the objection made by certain 
spirit photographers to use new and untried 
cameras, and it seems to me a very reason- 
able one. How many men and women 
prefer using a special billiard cue or golf 
club, and get better results when they do 
so ? It is not that the club or cue is any 
better in itself, but they have established 
relations with it. I have known a most 
sceptical and materialistic doctor agree with 
me that some kind of affinity may exist be- 
tween a man and his watch, and I am quite 
convinced of the fact myself. In truth, we 
are all extremely ignorant still, and the 
wise people are those who are the most con- 
scious of their colossal ignorance ! 

Three or four years ago I went to see 
Signor Volpi in Rome — a devoted student 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 196 

of modern psychology — and he showed me 
some very interesting photographs. My 
friend, Countess di Brazza, who had asked 
to accompany me in my visit, considered 
that the most interesting of all was one 
which contained no figure (I think) ; but a 
very excellent photograph of what looked 
like a large mass of a sort of white mem- 
branous " stuff," falling over a chair, and 
which was explained as being the material 
used in materializations. It would be in- 
teresting to know if this were a kind of 
temporary etheric condensation, in which 
case it would, of course, speedily dissipate, 
as we see the materialized form actually 
does, and sometimes under our very eyes. 
Another photograph of Signor Volpi's inter- 
ested me very much, especially when he 
told me the history of it. He had lost his 
first wife, as a man in the early thirties, and 
was in deep grief over her loss, when ad- 
vised to go to a certain photographer, de- 
voutly hoping that she might be able to 
make her presence visible to him on the 
plate. He took a friend with him, and 
there was some spontaneous movement of a 
chair by them before the photograph was 
taken, of which I forget the exact detail, 
but which excluded the possibility of any 



196 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

prepared " spirit '^ on the plate, owing to 
the special position of this suddenly moved 
chair in connection with the position of the 
figure. The latter, however, was extremely 
disappointing to Signer Volpi. It was a 
lady, certainly, but one whom he had never 
seen, and whose face and figure had not the 
least likeness to those of his wife, or any 
other lady of his acquaintance. 

He was so much depressed by this failure, 
that a day or two later he took the disap- 
pointing photograph with him, when pay- 
ing an evening visit to a Russian lady 
friend, who had some psychic intuition, 
especially when in a condition of slight 
trance. Under these circumstances she 
held the photograph in her hands and 
whispered to him, " Ce oldest pas le pass& — 
c^est pour Vavenir^^^ and then suddenly put 
her hand to her face, as if she were in great 
suffering, murmuring at the same time, 
" Ah, queje souffre I Queje souffre ! '* 

Neither of them had the least idea what 
the words or gestures meant when the 
friend became normal, and the photograph 
was locked away as a hopeless enigma. 
Some years later he met and became en- 
gaged to his second wife, whose face seemed 
to have a haunting memory which he could 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 197 

not place. Where had he seen her before ? 
One day he came upon the photograph in 
question, and then realized that it was the 
face of his fiancee when a few years younger. 
My recollection is that Signor Volpi's pho- 
tograph had been taken at some rather 
marked season, such as Easter or Whitsun- 
tide — anyway, his fiancee was able to trace 
her own movements, or rather absence of 
movement, on that particular day, for she 
had been in bed all the afternoon and suf- 
fering agony from toothache or neuralgia, 
which made her half dazed at times. Some 
unseen friends may have taken advantage 
of one of those temporary reactions from 
violent pain to suggest her astral appear- 
ance on the photographic plate in the pres- 
ence of her future husband ? 

As invisible substance is found to be the 
medium and background for the visible 
forces of light, heat and all forms of elec- 
tricity, so there are phenomenal substances 
as real and perceptible on their normal 
plane to the organs of the etheric and in- 
visible body, as purely physical substance 
is real and perceptible to us on our present 
plane of life. 

A friend of mine on the other side of 
life wishes me to say that he is working at 



198 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

this exact point — the Bridge of Ether, as I 
hava called it. He is studying experi- 
mentally to find out the nature of the 
'* electric ions " hidden within the atom on 
our side, and presumably more open to the 
astral vision, which is now his normal con- 
dition. He tells me that his present re- 
searches into the composition of etheric 
matter (visible on this side only by clair- 
voyance) will enable him (he hopes) to 
demonstrate the conditions under which 
materializations, voice production, " ap- 
ports/^ and other puzzling psychical phenom- 
ena can be classed as normal, to what we 
may call the point of junction, between the 
two spheres. No doubt he will in due time 
be able to convey this and much more infor- 
mation through the properly attuned brains 
of some of his progressive scientific friends. 
Those scientists whose labors lie in the 
department of the higher physics must step 
over the bridge — the evolutionary, etheric 
bridge — although physiologists may for the 
present remain content to study the grosser 
forms of matter, without wishing to trace 
these to their ultimates. There is room 
enough in the world and work enough in 
the world for all sorts of scientists, as well as 
other useful people. 



THE BRIDGE OF ETHER 199 

Lastly, my friend wishes me to say that 
his present studies in etheric matter, and 
the studies of the most advanced and pro- 
gressive scientists in the same subject on 
this side, are the literal tunnellings of which 
Sir Oliver Lodge speaks when he remarks 
that ** we are like workers in a mountain 
tunnel, who have got so far as to hear the 
picks of their comrades at work upon the 
other side, but the last barrier is not yet 
broken down." 

This is all that can be given through an 
unscientific and therefore unprepared mind, 
such as my own. If it suggest a possibility 
for opening up personal '* communication " 
between this worker and any progressive 
scientist, I feel that my humble role as 
*' mouse " to the scientific lions, will have 
been amply played and rewarded. 

I need only add that my friend's name is 
well known to many of them, and that this' 
assertion as to his present employment and 
its motive has been given to me in several 
independent directions, as well as endorsed 
by myself in my automatic script. I give it 
for what it is worth, and upon its own merits 
alone. 

It appears to be at least reasonable and 
sensible. 



CHAPTER XII 

IN CONCLUSION 

I HAVE been reading lately the admirable 
Introduction ^ to M. Leon Denis^ new book, 
Le Probleme de VEtre et de la Destin&ej which 
seems to sum up sane thought on modern 
problems of life — social, moral and political 
— in a nutshell. 

It would be well if some of these words of 
wisdom and insight could be translated into 
all languages and hung up, in letters of gold, 
in all international churches, universities, 
and most especially Houses of Parliament. 

He begins by remarking very truly that 
in all University centres the most complete 
uncertainty still reigns with regard to the 
most important problem that has been given 
to man to solve, and that this uncertainty is 
reflected in all their teachings. 

Most of the professors and teachers care- 
fully avoid all questions touching upon the 
great problem of life, its goal and its dura- 
tion. 

He goes on to say that the same source 

* This Introd action is practically reproduced with the kind and 
express permission of the Anthor. 

200 



IN CONCLUSION 201 

of weakness pervades ecclesiastical circles — 
the priest by his affirmations, which carry 
no proof, can only communicate to the souls 
under his charge a belief which has no 
answer either to the rules of sane criticism 
or to the demands of reason. 

** In truth, both in universities and in 
churches, the modern enquirer meets only 
with darkness and obscurity in all that con- 
cerns the problem of his life and of his 
future. The education given to the present 
generation is complicated enough, but it 
does not illuminate for them the way of life, 
nor does it arm them against its struggles. 
Classic lore may point to the cultivation of 
the intellect, but it does not in itself suffice 
to teach men how to act, to love, or to sacri- 
fice themselves. Still less can it teach a con- 
ception of life and destiny which will 
develop the deepest energies and direct our 
effi)rts towards the highest aims. It is to this 
state of things that we must in great measure 
attribute the evils of the present day : in- 
coherence of ideas, disorders of the con- 
science, and, in fact, moral and social 
anarchy. 

*' Francisco Sarcey, the accomplished Uni- 
versity Professor, wrote {Petit Journal j chro- 
nique 7 marSj 1894) : * I am on this earth. 



202 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

/ am absolutely ignorant of how I came here ; 
and why I was sent here. I am equally igno- 
rant of how I shall depart and of what will 
happen to me when I do depart.^ 

** Nothing can be more frank than this, 
Burely ! 

" The philosophy of the schools, after so 
many centuries of study and labor, is still 
a teaching without light, heat, or life. The 
souls of our children, tossed about between 
different and contradictory systems of 
thought — the positivism of Comte, the 
naturalism of Hegel, the materialism of 
John Stuart Mill, the eclecticism of Cousin, 
etc., float uncertainly and without ideals or 
any precise goal. Hence precocious pes- 
simism — the disease of all decadent society 
— is a terrible menace for the future. Add 
to this the bitter and mocking scepticism 
of the young men of the present day, who 
believe only in money, who honor success 
alone, and often consider themselves van- 
quished before they have even stepped into 
the arena of life. 

" Until recently, Thought has been con- 
fined within the strict limits of religions, 
schools or systems, which are mutually ex- 
clusive and continually at war with one 
another. Hence the divisions amongst us, 



IN CONCLUSION 203 

and the violent and contrary currents which 
disturb and upset the social equilibrium. 

" We must learn to dispense with these 
rigid circles, and to give new spring to our 
ideas. Every system contains some truth 
— no system can contain the whole truth. 
The aspects of life and of the universe are 
too varied and too numerous for any 
human system to be able to embrace all of 
these. We must try to discover the ele- 
ments of Truth in all these systems, and 
to harmonize them ; then uniting them 
with the new and varied aspects of Truth 
which are daily being unfolded to us, we 
shall be on the true road towards a grand 
unity and harmony of Thought. The 
human spirit has been crystallizing too 
long. It must be shaken out of its inertia 
and carried to the heights, yet without 
losing sight of the social foundations which 
a reorganized and more complete Science 
will afford. 

" It is for this Science of To-morrow that 
we are working, for this alone will provide 
us with the indispensable standards, the 
means of verification and control, without 
which. Thought left to itself will always 
risk going astray. 

'* The same difficulties and uncertainties 



204: PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

which we have spoken of already as regards 
teaching, find an echo in the entire social 
system. Everywhere we find a disturbing 
crisis. Under the brilliant exterior of a 
refined and advanced civilization we find a 
deep-seated uneasiness, and this irritation 
grows in the social ranks. The conflict of 
interests and the fight for life become daily more 
emphasized. The sentiment of duty meanwhile 
is weakened in the popular conscience; so 
ranch 50, that ruany men no longer recognize 
where their duty lies. The law of numbers — 
that means of blind force — is stronger and 
more masterful than ever. A treacherous 
oratory is employed to let loose the passions 
and the worst instincts of the people ^ and to 
spread unwholesome and even criminal theories 
amongst them. Then when the waters rise and 
the tempestuous winds are let loose, these 
orators are quick to hide themselves and to 
deny all responsibility for the hurricane they 
have raised ! 

"■ What is the explanation of this riddle, 
of this striking contradiction between the 
generous aspirations of the present day and 
the brutal reality of its facts ? Why should 
a century which has excited such high 
hopes threaten to end in anarchy and in 
the rupture of all social equilibrium ? 



IN CONCLUSION 205 

** Inexorable logic will answer us. De- 
mocracy, radical or socialistic, in its pro- 
found depths, or in its directing spirit, is 
inspired only by negative doctrines. How 
then can it have any but a negative result 
upon the happiness or progress of Human- 
ity ? As is the ideal, so is the man — as the 
nation, so is the country. 

" Negative ideas in their ultimate results 
must end fatally, in anarchy, in emptiness, 
in social nothingness. Human history has 
too often suffered this sad experience. 

" So long as it is only a question of des- 
troying vestiges of the Past, of giving the 
final blow to privileges which are anachro- 
nisms, Democracy has known how to use 
its weapons. But now it is a question of 
reconstructing the city of the future, that 
vast and powerful building, which is to 
shelter the Thought of future generations. 
And before such a task, negative doctrines 
show their weak points and their insuf- 
ficiency. Even the best workmen sink 
into a moral and material incapacity. 
They have no constructive power. They 
can only destroy. No human work can be 

GREAT OR DURABLE UNLESS IT IS INSPIRED 
BOTH THEORETICALLY AND PRACTICALLY, IN 
PRINCIPLE AS WELL AS IN APPLICATION, BY 



206 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

THE ETERNAL LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE. AlL 
THAT IS CONCEIVED AND BUILT UP IN OPPOSI- 
TION TO THESE LAWS, IS BUILT UPON SAND 
AND MUST PERISH. NoW THE DOCTRINES OF 

MODERN Socialism have one fatal flaw — 

THEY ARE TRYING TO IMPOSE A RULE WHICH 
IS IN CONTRADICTION TO NATURE, AND TO THE 

LAW OF Humanity. Individual and pro- 
gressive EVOLUTION IS THE FUNDAMENTAL 

LAW OF Nature and of Life. It is the 

ONLY SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF FATE, 
THE BAISON D'ETRE OF MAN, AND THE NORM 
OF THE UNIVERSE. 

*' To rebel against this law and to try to 
substitute another goal is just as foolish as 
it would be to attempt to stop the move- 
ment of the earth or to interfere with the 
tides of the ocean. 

" The weakest side of the socialistic doc- 
trine lies in man's ignorance of his essential 
being, and of the laws which govern his 
destiny. And if individual man is to be 
ignored, how is social man going to be gov- 
erned ? 

" The source of all our woes lies in our 
ignorance of our moral inferiority. 

" All society must remain weak, power- 
less and divided, so long as Doubt and De- 
fiance, Egoism, Envy and Hatred govern it. 



IN CONCLUSION 207 

No society can be transformed by laws 
alone. Laws and institutions are of little 
value without elevated beliefs and good 
morals. Whatever may be the special po- 
litical model or legislation of a nation, if 
they possess good morals and strong con- 
victions, that nation will always be happier 
and more powerful than one of lower moral 
calibre. 

'* As a Society is the result of individual 
forces, good or bad, it is obvious that such 
a Society cannot be improved except by 
acting first upon the intelligence and con- 
science of individual members. But for 
the democratic Socialist, the inner man, the 
man of individual consciousness, does not 
exist. He is absorbed in the mass. The 
principles thus adopted are those which are 
a negation to all superior philosophy and to 
all great causes. Nothing is to be consid- 
ered but the conquest of rights. Yet rights 
cannot be legitimately enjoyed without 
practicing the duties attached to them. 
Rights without duties, which limit and 
correct them, will only give birth to new 
cataclysms and fresh sufferings. 

" This is why the formidable Push of 
Socialism will only displace the centre of 
yearnings and desires and sufferings, and 



208 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

substitute for the oppressions of the past a 
new despotism, and one still more intoler- 
able. We can see already the disasters 
caused by these negative doctrines. The 
moral world has become merely an annexe 
of physiology, that is to say, the reign and 
manifestation of a blind and irresponsible 
Force. The more elevated spirits profess a 
kind of metaphysical negation, and the 
mass or Humanity — the People — without 
beliefs or fixed principles, are delivered up, 
soul and body, to men who play upon their 
passions and speculate upon their desires. 

'' Positivism is no less fatal although less 
wide-spread. By its theory of the Unknow- 
able, it suppresses all notions of a goal and 
of the greater evolution. It takes hold of 
man in his present phase of life — a mere 
fragment of his Destiny, and hinders him 
from looking either backwards or forwards ; 
a barren, dangerous doctrine, fit only for 
those whose spirits are blind ; although 
falsely proclaimed as the most glorious con- 
quest of the modern mind. 

*' Such is the actual state of Society. The 
danger is enormous. The world must fall 
into incoherence and confusion unless some 
great Spiritual and Scientific Reformation 
can be brought about. It is true that 



IN CONCLUSION 209 

the Churches, in spite of their retrograde 
movement, still attract many earnest souls, 
but they are powerless to combat present 
evils, because they can furnish no definite 
knowledge concerning human destiny, 
founded on salient and well-established 
facts. Religion, upon this most important 
question in its domain, remains vague. 
Humanity, tired out with dogmas and base- 
less speculations, has plunged into material- 
ism or indifference. There is no longer any 
hope left, except in a doctrine based upon 
experience and the testimony of Facts, 

'* Whence can such a doctrine come ? 
What power is to deliver us from the abyss 
over which we are hovering? What new 
ideal will come, to restore to man confidence 
in the future and enthusiasm in his aspira- 
tions ? In the tragic moments of history, 
when all seemed lost, help has never failed. 
The human soul cannot absolutely founder 
and perish ! At a time when the beliefs of 
the Past have grown misty, a new concep- 
tion of life and destiny, based upon the 
science of facts, reappears. The grand old 
traditions live once more, under more 
youthful and more beautiful forms. 

" Once more they demonstrate a future 
full of hope and promise. Let us welcome 



210 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

this Ideal, victorious over matter, and let 
us work together to prepare its paths. The 
task will be a heavy one.. It will mean a 
reconstruction of man's education. We 
have seen that neither Church nor Uni- 
versity, as at present constituted, is capable 
of giving this education, because they have 
not the synthesis necessary to enlighten the 
path of the rising generations. One system 
alone can offer this synthesis, namely Scien- 
tific-Spiritualism. It is already appearing 
above the horizon of the intellectual world, 
with promise of light for the future. To 
this philosophy and science, free and inde- 
pendent, with no official stamp nor political 
compromise about it, modern discoveries are 
bringing every day new and valuable addi- 
tions. The phenomena of Magnetism, of 
Radio-activity, of Telepathy, are applica- 
tions of one principle, manifestations of the 
same law which governs the universe and 
also the individual. 

'* Still some years more of patient labor, 
of conscientious experiment, of persevering 
research, and the new education will have 
found its scientific formula and its true 
foundations. 

" Education, as we know, is the most im- 
portant factor in progress and contains in 



IN CONCLUSION 211 

itself the germs of the future, but in order 
to be complete, education must realize and 
be inspired by the study of life under its 
two alternating forms, visible and invisible. 

** The teachers of Humanity have there- 
fore an immediate duty to perform. It is 
to recognize the spiritual once more as the 
base of all education, and to endeavor to 
bring the inner man into true manifestation. 
The human soul, lulled to sleep by a fatal 
rhetoric, must be awakened and shown its 
hidden powers and made to realize still 
more its glorious destiny. 

" Modern Science has analyzed the out- 
side world and made deep investigations of 
the objective side of the Universe. All honor 
to it ! But modern Science knows nothing 
at present of the invisible universe nor of 
the invisible man. This is the boundless 
empire which still remains for her to con- 
quer. To know by what links man is at- 
tached to the Cosmos, to descend into the 
mysterious folds of Being, where light and 
shadow mingle as they do in Plato's Cave, 
to pass through these labyrinths of exist- 
ence, to sound the normal and the abnormal 
Ego, the conscious and the subconscious ; 
no study can be more necessary than this. 
So far as the schools and academies of in- 



212 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

struction have left this out of their pro- 
gramme, so far have they failed in any 
definite teaching of Humanity. 

" But already we see a marvellous and 
unexpected psychology, emerging from 
which must come a new conception of be- 
ing and the ideal of a higher law which 
will embrace and solve all the problems of 
future evolution. 

" The present time is one of transition and 
therefore of birth pangs. The old forms of 
the past are growing feeble and giving place 
to others, which at first appear vague and 
confused, but will become more and more 
defined in time. These new forms are the 
first sketch and plan of the growing thought 
of Humanity. The human spirit is 'in 
travail.* Everywhere, in Science, in Art, 
in Philosophy, even in the bosom of Re- 
ligion, the attentive observer will note a 
period of slow and painful conception. 
Science above all gives abundant promise 
for the future. The coming century will be 
one of great production. Whatever may be 
our attitude of sentiment towards the teach- 
ing bequeathed to us by our fathers, most 
of us will agree that these teachings have 
not sujB&ced to dissipate the agonizing mys- 
tery of the purpose of life. Yet action 



IN CONCLUSION 213 

and life were never more intense — but can 
we either live or act in the fullest sense, 
without being conscious of the goal to be 
attained ? 

" The soul of the present day demands a 
science, an art, a religion of light and liberty, 
to deliver her from her doubts, to free her a 
from old slaveries and miseries of thought, / \ 
to guide her to those shining horizons to- 
wards which she is impelled by her very 
nature and by the impulses of irresistible 
force. We hear much of Progress, but it is 
too often a word of empty sound in the 
mouth of orators, who are generally material- 
istic in their philosophy. Twenty civiliza- 
tions have passed over our earth, lighting 
up the march of Humanity. They have 
shone through the night of the centuries 
and have become extinguished. Yet man, 
even now, has no defined sense in his limited 
thoughts, of the unlimited spheres where 
Fate is swiftly bearing him. Men can only 
truly progress and advance when they be- 
lieve in a future, towards which they walk 
in confidence and certainty. 

** Progress does not consist alone in mate- 
rial works — in the invention of powerful 
machines or agricultural instruments. 
Neither does it consist in finding new tech- 



214 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

nicalities and processes in art, literature, or 
forms of eloquence. Its great objective is to 
find the leading idea which will fertilize all 
human life, the pure and high Source, from 
which will flow the truths, the principles 
and the sentiments which will inspire all 
great works and all noble actions. Civili- 
zation and Society can only grow and ex- 
pand where thoughts even more pure and 
elevated, and light increasingly clear, come 
to illuminate the spirits and touch the hearts 
of individuals. 

" The Universe is ruled by the law of evo- 
lution. This alone is what we understand 
by the word Progress. We are all subjected 
to the same law. We cannot fail to recog- 
nize the working of this sovereign law, 
which carries the soul across the infinities of 
time and space towards an increasingly 
splendid goal — hut the law can only work with 
OUT cooperation. 

" To do any really useful work, to cooper- 
ate, with the cosmic evolution and gather 
its fruits, we must above all things learn to 
apprehend the reason, the cause and the 
goal of this evolution, to learn where it is 
bearing us, so that we may participate with 
all our latent faculties and capacities in this 
glorious ascension. 



IN CONCLUSION 216 

" It is our duty also to trace out these 
paths for Future Humanity, of which we 
shall still maiie an integral part, as we teach 
it of the communion of souls, and as Nature 
teaches by her thousand voices, and by her 
perpetual changes and renewals, all those 
who can study and understand her." 

• ••••• 

In the above pages I have endeavored to 
give, not an entire and literal but at least a 
faithful resume of the thoughts of a wise and 
philosophic mind on the present state of the 
world, physical and mental. The picture is 
strikingly true. The colors have been put 
in with a strong hand, but I think no reason- 
able and thinking mind can question their 
correctness. This is how the present posi- 
tion, national and international, appears to 
a man of thoughtful intelligence and obser- 
vation ; apart from any limitations of special 
creed or sect. I am reminded of the old 
story (is it told in Lalla Rookh ?)y where the 
man who is climbing up the mountain peaks 
sees the earth crumbling beneath him as he 
steps forward. At length a terrible moment 
arrives when no solid ground appears in 
front of him, and he is apparently plunging 
into a terrible abyss. He looks up to the 
heavens in despair; but at that very mo- 



216 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

ment he sees a golden chain let down to 
him. He swings himself on to it in an ac- 
cess of sublime faith, and finds himself 
drawn up to the skies. 

We have reached the abyss — there can be 
little doubt of that, when we look round on 
the misery and menace and unrest of the 
world. The golden chain is already within 
sight, thank God ! Are we going to seize it 
or to let it pass us by, unheeded by our 
feeble yet despairing hands ? 

That is the question which must soon be 
answered. M. Leon Denis points out to us, 
as others have done, though perhaps with 
less clear and unbiassed judgment, just 
where we must now look for help, to stem 
the disastrous tides that threaten to over- 
whelm us. Truth alone can do this, and 
the truth most earnestly needed just now is 
the truth of the eternal laws of the universe 
and of our individual cooperation in the 
grand cosmic unity of the future. 

Hear what another noted Frenchman 
(Mons. Edouard Schur^) has to say on the 
same subject : — 

*' If the law of Christ has penetrated the 
individual conscience, or even to some ex- 
tent the social life, Pagan and barbarous 
laws still govern our political institutions. 



IN CONCLUSION 317 

Political power everywhere rests on an in- 
sufficient basis. On the one hand it rests 
on the divine right of kings, which means 
military force — on the other it rests upon 
universal suffrage, which merely means the 
instincts of the masses without selective intel- 
ligence. 

** A nation does not consist of a number 

of indeterminate values ; nor is it a sum in 
addition. It is a living organism. So far 
as national representation is not in the like- 
ness and image of this organism, from its 
workmen to its teachers, there will be no 
national representation of a radical and in- 
telligent nature.'' 

" So long as the delegates of all scientific 
bodies and of all Christian churches do not 
meet together in a * Supreme Council/ so long 
will our societies be governed by instinct, by 
passion and by force — there will be no social 
temple.^ ^ 

Mons. Schure also sees in the develop- 
ments of modern psychology our only hope 
for the future. I think he would say that 
the greatest hope of all rests with our Chris- 
tian mystics, to whom the grand work is en- 
trusted of rescuing the esoteric teaching of 
Jesus Christ from the misapprehensions 
and accretions of centuries. The misap- 



218 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

prehensions were sometimes those of His 
devoted but not wholly illuminated dis- 
ciples ; to whom He said that there were 
still many things that could not yet be 
assimilated by them. The accretions have 
come through the fights of the Fathers and 
the heretical persecutions which have so 
often led to the over emphasis of one side of 
a truth in the attempt to crush some error 
on the other side ; and thus, again and again, 
the true balance has been lost. 

Behind all these human misconstructions 
and this exalting of the letter which kills, 
above the spirit which makes alive, stands 
the Silent Figure of the Patient Master, 
waiting for His Second Coming into our 
hearts, in a wider knowledge and a broader 
sympathy with His true mission and His 
true meaning. 

Every great religion of the past has had 
its esoteric wisdom hidden from the multi- 
tude, not through an}^ arbitrary fiat, but in 
the ordinary working of evolutionary law. 
Is it to be supposed that Christianity, the 
last and grandest " word of God " to man, 
should alone lack this element? That our 
Lord knew less than other teachers of the 
past, of the great yet simple truths of the 
universe? To those who have eyes and 



IN CONCLUSION 219 

ears beyond the material ones of sense, even 
such words of His as have come down to us, 
through oral and written tradition, are full 
of this inner meaning which flesh and 
blood cannot accept, and which our spirits 
alone can fathom, when guided by the 
Divine Spirit within. 

That is why I say that earnest and rev- 
erent Christian mystics are imperatively 
needed just now, to speak openly of those 
subjects. It is no easy matter, and it needs 
much courage. Human Nature now is very 
much what it was ninteen hundred years 
ago, when our Lord Himself was reproved 
again and again by the limited and narrow 
creed-holders of that day — the orthodox 
Jews. 

The Mystic will not only have narrow 
prejudices to confront, but (which is far 
more painful) the reverent and deep-seated 
beliefs of those good and earnest Christians 
who have clung to the special meanings 
they have always heard attached to certain 
texts of Scripture, and who feel that the 
whole edifice of their faith will crumble, if 
one single brick be removed. It is so easy 
to identify the letter with the spirit — a 
special interpretation with a universal fact — 
the scaffolding with the building ; to which 



220 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

it was at one time a necessity, but has now 
become an unnecessary obstruction. 

Why are we so fearful that the Social 
building may tumble about our ears if we 
remove the scaffolding ? It is because our 
reverence for the letter of the Past is stronger 
than our faith in the spirit of the Future. 

We are so ready to patronize Truth, and 
even, it would almost seem, the Almighty 
Himself ! We appear to think that neither 
can stand alone and without our assistance. 

This attitude, which is very general, would 
be almost grotesque if it were not also so 
pitiful. 

We draw down the blinds and shut out 
the light and try to turn our backs on the 
wicked laws of evolution, through some queer 
idea of loyalty to the Father who works 
through these laws, or to the Son, who came 
here as the representative of them upon earth. 

The same mistaken loyalty is the stum- 
bling-block which prevents so many " Chris- 
tian people " from taking any active part in 
our research. They think and say that 
" We are not intended to know this or that.'* 
But surely when God does not intend us to 
know anything, He can very easily keep 
the knowledge from us ! Certainly He has 
done so in the past, over and over again. 



IN CONCLUSION 231 

Why has so much knowledge (presumably 
within the limits of ancient lore) been buried 
in the obscurity of past ages ? Surely for 
one of two reasons ; probably both. It 
would have been disastrous to have had too 
much knowledge, combined with too little 
wisdom, as has been proved in these past 
centuries. Also, we seem to be treated, very 
wisely, as our children are treated at school. 
They only gain prizes when they have worked 
for them. 

Therefore, I really think, when such an 
influx of psychical knowledge is bestowed 
upon us — when scientists, after fierce rebel- 
lion against it, are at long last slowly but 
surely coming within the field of investiga- 
tion — when our studies in that subject are 
daily gaining, not only in experience, but 
(which is even more necessary) in wise direc- 
tion, owing to the number of competent 
men and careful observers who are now in- 
teresting themselves on these lines — when 
all this is happening under our very eyes, I 
would suggest in all reverence that it is 
time for us, poor blind moles, to trust the 
Almighty to know His own business with- 
out our intervention. The Society which 
has adopted the somewhat ambitious title of 
" The Theosophical Society," has done ex- 



222 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

cellent work during the last thirty years or 
so in popularizing Eastern teachings and 
bringing them within the scope of the 
ordinary Western man and woman. Until 
then, these ancient religions had been con- 
sidered the speciality and sole possession of 
the few learned Eastern scholars in Euro- 
pean countries, such as Max Miiller in Ger- 
many (naturalized in England), Rhys 
Davids, and many others who could be 
mentioned ; plus a limited number of dis- 
tinguished amateur students, who from 
time to time have taken the trouble to 
learn Sanscrit, Arabic, Hindustani and 
other Eastern tongues, in order to prosecute 
their studies in the leading religions of the 
world, at the respective fountain-heads. 

Many of these latter, including also 
numerous Buddhists, and not a few Hindus, 
have scouted the labors of modern "The- 
osophy," and have declared that the theoso- 
phists have " muddled up " various differ- 
ent systems of thought in the endeavor to 
make a comprehensive if somewhat com- 
plicated whole. 

Doubtless all attempts at synthesis be- 
tween various sources of religious teachings 
must labor under similar difficulties. 

Nothing in the world can be separated 



m CONCLUSION 223 

from its indigenous surroundings without 
some loss. If we take a doctrine, a system 
of thought, a philosophy, we need also to 
take the race, the conditions of life, of 
climate, of soil, through which the doctrine 
or system of philosophy was nurtured and 
developed — you might add to these, the 
mentality of the nation that evolved it. 
Otherwise, it is like going round the 
world and collecting specimens of the flora 
and fauna of many lands, and then coming 
home to plant them in your own little 
garden under totally different conditions. 
Some may grow, many more will die, whilst 
others will of necessity change their nature 
and appearance under the new conditions. 
And this is very much what has happened 
in the attempt to graft Eastern thought (in 
detail) on to Western stock. 

Yet we are the richer for seeing even 
dried specimens of the flowers and fruits of 
other countries. Therefore I think we owe 
a debt of gratitude to any movement that 
aims at spreading knowledge and placing it 
within reach of those who might otherwise 
not search for it themselves. 

" TjT / dared,*^ as the witty Frenchman 
said who wrote some bright articles lately in 
the Daily Maily I should like to give a word 



224 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

of warning to these latter ; having many 
friends amongst modern *' Theosophists." 
We are all apt to think that what is new to 
us must be unknown to others. The reverse 
proposition that *' every one probably knows 
what we know " is equally dangerous, be- 
cause it takes too much for granted ; but it 
is not quite so aggressively irritating to 
poor, fallen human nature I Yet it is very 
natural to identify a certain piece of knowl- 
edge with the particular channel through 
which it reached you individually. But it 
is sometimes a little trying to have theories 
and ideas, which may have been familiar to 
us for many years, through quite other 
sources, suddenly sprung upon us as theo- 
sophical copyright ! 

The second word I should like to say 
" 7/* J daredf^^ is that we all need to remind 
ourselves continually of the distinction be- 
tween knowledge and wisdom. We may 
know every technical term connected with 
every system of thought in the past; or in 
the present, for that matter. We may be 
able to stand an examination as to the 
division of the human personality into 
its component parts — physical — animal — 
spiritual, and give exactly the right pro- 
portions and names to each. We may have 



IN CONCLUSION 225 

the most accurate information as to the 
human aura, or even the various future 
spheres, and know the correct Sanscrit and 
Hindustani words for every subject upon 
which we write, or speak, or lecture. All 
this is knowledge — it is not wisdom. It is 
multiplicity — not unity. 

No adept can teach us Wisdom. We 
must be our own adepts for that ; since it 
comes only by living the life and treading 
the path ourselves, not by merely knowing 
the name of the road ; even in Sanscrit ! 
And that road will differ for each one of us, 
for it is part of the multiplicity. It is only 
on reaching the goal that we shall once 
more come into Unity with all who have 
arrived there, through very varied experi- 
ences. 

Fasting and prayer may help us in the 
path, but we must use our own feet in walk- 
ing along it. Neither Madame Blavatsky 
nor Mr. Sinnett, nor Mrs. Besant, nor even 
Mr. G. S. Mead (with whose writings I feel 
personally the most intellectually affinitive) 
can do that bit of walking for us. 

But it seems to me that Wisdom — not 
only knowledge — does underlie all the 
earliest conceptions of all the great religions, 
•o long as their esoteric teachings remained 



226 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

pure and unadulterated. These teachings, 
so profound in essence and so simple in 
form, consisted as we have seen of a few 
grand principles — 

The Father-Mother God— in Unity. 

The '' Word " of God— Humanity— in 
manifestation. 

The Spirit of God — in the interior illu- 
mination of the Divine Human. 

Three lines, which sum up Life and Death 
and Eternity. 

• • • • • • 

I will end this chapter as I began it (after 
my quotation) with a fervent appeal to all 
those who are in authority — State or Ec- 
clesiastical — not only to read their Bibles in 
the light of scientific and psychological dis- 
coveries of the present day (many doubtless 
do that already), but to have the courage of 
their opinions in stating openly and in the 
highest places that the time is ripe when 
we must read all revelation of truth in its 
inner and therefore truest meaning ; or be 
content to see Christianity put aside, as a 
superstition of the past, useful enough in 
its time, but with no message for the think- 



IN CONCLUSION 227 

ing men and women of the present day. 
Some may say, " This can never be," but it 
will be, unless we bestir ourselves and take 
warning ere it be too late. In being over- 
careful of the letter (for fear of giving of- 
fense or pain to others), we are in danger of 
losing the spirit, which alone carries the 
germ of life. 

What matter if the disciples were oc- 
casionally mistaken on a few points ? — If 
they read their own limited ideas into the 
Lord's words? Is not this just what He 
Himself knew they would do? Was not 
this His reason for saying so little, since 
even that little was so obviously beyond 
their powers of understanding at times ? 

We have parted with ^* verbal inspira- 
tion " as a manifest absurdity — and the 
most *' convinced Christian " has survived 
the shock. 

Now we are asked to go a step further — 
to say (as many clergymen in their hearts 
are saying to-day) that the Bible is the his- 
tory of an inspired nation, but that it is not 
wholly or equally inspired as a record. 

Even within my lifetime I can recall the 
fierce fights over verbal inspiration, where 
all now is peace. Another and far more 
important crisis has arrived. 



228 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

Are we to rescue the teaching of our 
Master, even at the expense of allowing 
limitations in His disciples and apostles ? 

Or are we to lose that teaching — at least 
in its possible fullness and truth ? 

That is the choice — the only choice now 
possible for us. 

Viewed from the present standpoint of 
Science and Psychology, there are such 
numerous and unmistakable indications in 
His words, of the inner meaning, which 
always accompanied the outer symbol. 
But we fear to bring this into strong reliefs 
lest a shadow should he cast on some textual 
difficulty J which we feel hound to acce^ot as of 
equal value. This is the popular problem 
which has to be solved. How are we going 
to meet it ? 

I am writing in the interest of the Anglo- 
Catholic world at large ; not for those 
scholars and mystics, lay or ecclesiastical, 
who can air their advanced views in various 
advanced theological magazines, or before 
eclectic circles of friends. It is a "popular 
danger which I have indicated, and it needs 
a popular (and not eclectic) remedy. 

When the thoughtful middle classes and 
the thoughtful lower classes (with ample 
apologies) are beginning to realize that they 



IN CONCLUSION 229 

know enough of modern scientific discover- 
ies and of modern psychological discover- 
ies, to feel themselves ahead of generally 
accepted Christian " doctrines/' surely there 
must be something wrong which needs re- 
adjustment? 

There are some who can assimilate spir- 
itual food more easily when served up with 
Thibet Sauce. This is probably a question 
partly of temperament and perhaps of pre- 
vious incarnation, but it is also due to the 
fact that they find thus a freedom of intel- 
ligent thought and intuition, a sense of 
space, of spiritual oxygen, which are too 
often absent from the ministrations of our 
own churches — absent, we may almost say, 
of necessity. Preaching that must com- 
promise with, or even openly defy, public 
opinion, may, in the latter case, be coura- 
geous, but it can never be healthily normal. 

The Resurrection of our Lord — the very 
corner-stone of Christianity, as St. Paul so 
truly and logically declared — brought life 
and immortality to light. Until within the 
last fifty years this has been an article of 
blind faith to most good Christian people — 
a stumbling-block to many of the more 
thoughtful and intellectual amongst them. 
As with the miracles, so with the Resurrec- 



230 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

tion ; they have had the wish, but often 
not the power, *' to believe.'^ 

Modern psychology has come to the res- 
cue, and has pointed the way out of this 
impasse, a way lighted by the torch of evolv- 
ing Science. As Jesus Christ rose in the 
psychical body and manifested this to His 
disciples and to certain others at various 
times, with the powers and capacities nor- 
mal to such a body ; so now, after nearly 
two thousand years, it is necessary to bring 
about the Second Coming of our Lord 
into our advancing spiritual consciousness, 
and this can only be done through the cooper- 
ation of the human race. It is for us to real- 
ize first ourselves, and then to show forth to 
others, that Jesus Christ, the Divine Master, 
taught only through principles, never 
through narrow doctrines or creeds — that 
this is the standard by which we must test 
all accounts of His doings and sayings. 
Water must rise to its own level. How can 
the Divine Messiah sink below the level of 
His own teachings ? If He is ever represented 
as doing so, we must reject that representation, 
rather than allow such an impossibility. There 
is more than enough of the high water mark 
in our New Testaments by which to judge 
of His credentials. 



IN CONCLUSION 231 

To those who believe firmly in Evolution 
— Spiritual Evolution will appear not only 
reasonable but absolutely essential, both for 
the race and for the individual. It is true 
that we are all at varying points in spiritual 
as in physical evolution, but surely we have 
justification for concluding that the Divine 
Messenger, who showed us the grand Love 
principle — not merely as a fine human emo- 
tion, but as the beginning and end — the 
Alpha and Omega of all conscious existence 
— Love, as the very essence of the Almighty^ 
must be Himself in advance of the grandest 
and purest revelations of the past, which 
have lacked this final word of the Creator to 
the children of His creation ? 

St. Paul attempted to define the undefi- 
nable mystery in his grand chapter on Love, 
in the first of Corinthians ; but even there 
he failed. How can Eternity be compressed 
into words ? 

St. John — the greater mystic — did not 
make the attempt. He only tells us that 
the Divine is Love, and gives us some tests 
by which we may know how far the human 
copy approaches the original. 

Christ — the greatest Mystic as well as 
Messiah — tells us of the love of God. That 
was His special message to the world, but 



232 PSYCHICAL SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY 

He does much more than this. He shows 
us love incarnate through His own life, as 
well as in His own death, and by doing this 
He shows us the Father (who is Love), 
and thus justifies His magnificent claim — 
" He that hath seen Me, hath seen the 
Father.'' Yet in the very next sentence He 
distinguishes between Himself, in His hu- 
man aspect, and the Father, by hastening to 
add : " The words that I speak unto you, I 
speak not of Myself but the Father that 
dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.'* 

Could He have defined the position more 
clearly for those who have ears to hear and 
hearts to understand ? For spiritual truth 
must be apprehended by the heart, as well 
as by the intellect. 

*' In My Father's house are many man- 



sions." 



Each cycle seems to bring another man- 
sion in the Father's House within our 
view. 

Can we doubt, in the light of the Past — 
in the light of the Present — above all, in the 
light already filtering down to us from the 
Future, that a grand destiny awaits us, when 
we have passed through the waves of this 
troublesome world, and as many more 
troublesome worlds as may be necessary for 



IX CONCLUSION 233 

our development, and enter once more into 
the Father's House, having received, 
through the weary path of Evolution, the 
right to call | ourselves no longer His serv- 
ants, but His sons ? 



THE END 



OCT 29 1909 



1 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proce; 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



